Somali suicide bomber lived in Switzerland

Somalis walk past the wreckage of a car used in a suicide bombing in Mogadishu, on Jan. 22. (Photo: AP, Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

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BERLIN — A suicide bomber who last week killed himself and three others at a hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu had previously lived in Switzerland.

A spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, NDB, said Tuesday that the agency was working on the assumption that the man of Somali origin came to Switzerland in 2008.

Carolina Bohren told The Associated Press that the bomber received temporary residency in Switzerland along with Swiss travel documents, but not Swiss citizenship.

The attacker blew himself up Thursday at the gate of the SYL hotel, used by Turkish officials. The attack bore the hallmarks of al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist group fighting the Somali government.

Bohren said the man, who she didn't identify, notified Swiss authorities in January 2013 that he was moving away, without specifying where.

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