A powerful car bomb killed at least five people on Sunday outside a popular hotel in central Somalia, police and witnesses said, in an attack claimed by militants aligned with Al-Qaeda. The blast injured 14 others and destroyed not just the hotel but adjacent buildings in Jowhar about 90 kilometres (56 miles) north of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. Police said the attackers rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into the outer wall of the Nur-doob hotel, popular with state lawmakers and other local officials. “They have killed five civilians, among them women working in the hotel and security guards,” said Mohamed Ali, a police officer in Jowhar, told AFP. “Fourteen other people were wounded, some of them inside buildings not even close to the hotel.”

Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based group tied to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on a pro-militant website.