MOGADISHU: The death toll from an Al-Shabab attack on a hotel in central Somalia where clan leaders were meeting on Tuesday has risen to 10 and most of the victims were civilians, a police officer in the town said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, attackers from the Al-Qaeda-linked group struck the hotel in Beledweyne with a car bomb before its gunmen entered the hotel and engaged in a day-long siege with government forces trying to flush them out.
Clan elders from the Hiran region had gathered in the hotel for a meeting to discuss ways of countering Al-Shabab before the attack, which the Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for.
A clan elder had earlier put the death toll at seven.
“The siege was concluded last night at midnight. Four attackers blew themselves up and the other two attackers were shot dead,” Major Nur Aden, a police officer told Reuters from Beledweyne, which is also the region’s capital.
“Ten people died in the hospital including elders and soldiers, mostly civilians,” he said.
A resident who lives next to the hotel, Ahmed Ismail, said gunfire had died down at around midnight.
Al Shabab often conducts bomb and gun attacks in the fragile Horn of Africa nation as part of a campaign launched nearly two decades ago to topple the government and establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Al Shabab said in a statement its fighters had killed 20 people including soldiers and elders. It gave no details of its own casualties. The numbers it gives often differ from those of officials and residents.
Somalia hotel siege death toll rises to 10, officer says
https://arab.news/nkw3t
Somalia hotel siege death toll rises to 10, officer says
- Attackers from Al-Shabab struck the hotel in Beledweyne with a car bomb
Prabowo, Trump expected to sign Indonesia-US tariff deal in January 2026
- Deal will mean US tariffs on Indonesian products are cut from a threatened 32 percent to 19 percent
- Jakarta committed to scrap tariffs on more than 99 percent of US goods
JAKARTA: Indonesia expects to sign a tariff deal with the US in early 2026 after reaching an agreement on “all substantive issues,” Jakarta's chief negotiator said on Tuesday.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto met with US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Washington this week to finalize an Indonesia-US trade deal, following a series of discussions that took place after the two countries agreed on a framework for negotiations in July.
“All substantive issues laid out in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade have been agreed upon by the two sides, including both the main and technical issues,” Hartarto said in an online briefing.
Officials from both countries are now working to set up a meeting between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and US President Donald Trump.
It will take place after Indonesian and US technical teams meet in the second week of January for a legal scrubbing, or a final clean-up of an agreement text.
“We are expecting that the upcoming technical process will wrap up in time as scheduled, so that at the end of January 2026 President Prabowo and President Trump can sign the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade,” Hartarto said.
Indonesian trade negotiators have been in “intensive” talks with their Washington counterparts since Trump threatened to levy a 32 percent duty on Indonesian exports.
Under the July framework, US tariffs on Indonesian imports were lowered to 19 percent, with Jakarta committing to measures to balance trade with Washington, including removing tariffs on more than 99 percent of American imports and scrapping all non-tariff barriers facing American companies.
Jakarta also pledged to import $15 billion worth of energy products and $4.5 billion worth of agricultural products such as soybeans, wheat and cotton, from the US.
“Indonesia will also get tariff exemptions on top Indonesian goods, such as palm oil, coffee, cocoa,” Hartarto said.
“This is certainly good news, especially for Indonesian industries directly impacted by the tariff policy, especially labor-intensive sectors that employ around 5 million workers.”
In the past decade, Indonesia has consistently posted trade surpluses with the US, its second-largest export market after China.
From January to October, data from the Indonesian trade ministry showed two-way trade valued at nearly $36.2 billion, with Jakarta posting a $14.9 billion surplus.
