Al-Shabaab members executed in Somalia for deadly hotel attack 2 years ago

Somalia executed three men on Wednesday convicted of participating in the bombing of a Mogadishu hotel that killed 18 people in 2017 as members of the insurgent group al-Shabaab, the state-run news agency said.

"They were accused of being al-Shabaab members. They were also among the attackers in the bombing of the Nasahablod Two Hotel, in which 18 people died and 47 others were injured," Somalia's state news agency said on its website, a death toll that is lower than reports in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The condemned men were executed by gunshot.

Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group which is trying to topple Somalia's central government, was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

It remains a threat, with fighters frequently carrying out bombings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, whose troops form part of the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force that helps defend the Somali government.

The hotel attack came just two weeks after more than 350 people were killed in a massive truck bombing on a busy Mogadishu street.