The death toll in Somalia's hotel suicide bombing, which killed the country's security minister rose to 20, with a further 30 people wounded, local elders told selfnews on Thursday. The blast, which killed security minister Omar Hashi Aden, partially destroyed the hotel in the town of Beledweyne, 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Mogadishu, near the Ethiopian border. 'The death toll is now at 20, including top government officials and security forces who were guarding the minister,' Abdi Sheikh Guled, a local elder told selfnews. Abdulahi Rage, another elder, gave a similar toll adding that 30 others had been wounded in the attack. President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed blamed the attack on the hardline Islamic Shebab, which has stepped up a campaign to overthrow his shaky administration since early May. The high-profile assassination followed a day of fierce clashes on Wednesday between insurgents and government forces that killed at least 26 people in Mogadishu, including the capital's police commander. Yusuf Ahmed Hagar, a former governor of Beledweyn described Thursday's suicide bombing as a 'real disaster'. Nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 122,000 displaced in the Horn of Africa country since early May. 