At least 13 civilians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Islamist militant attack on a hotel in the Somali capital, officials said Saturday, as security forces battled gunmen barricaded inside many hours after the siege began.
Fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab stormed the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu on Friday evening in a hail of gunfire and bomb blasts.
Scores of people were trapped inside but officials said many including children have since been rescued. Sporadic gunfire and loud explosions could be heard into Saturday afternoon, but details remain difficult to verify in the chaos.
It is the biggest attack in Mogadishu since Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was elected in May after many months of political instability.
Al-Shabaab, which has been waging a deadly insurgency for 15 years against the fragile government in the Horn of Africa nation, has claimed responsibility. “We are getting information about five more victims confirmed dead and that makes 13 the overall number of civilians killed by the terrorists,” security commander Mohamed Abdikadir told AFP. “The security forces rescued dozens of civilians including children who were trapped in the building.” Police officer Ibrahim Duale confirmed that more than 10 people had been killed, but said updated information would be released once the siege had ended. “The security forces will announce any moment that the siege is over, it took a long time because of the complexity of the rescue mission,” Duale told AFP.
The director of Mogadishu’s main trauma hospital, Mohamed Abdirahman Jama, said the facility was treating at least 40 people wounded in the hotel attack and a separate mortar strike on another area of the capital.
