The security forces in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu ended the siege of a hotel by the Islamist Shebab militia after around 30 hours. At least 20 people were killed in the attack, according to police and eyewitness reports. A high-ranking police officer, Mohamed Dahir, spoke to the German Press Agency of at least 30 dead. “The attackers are dead,” a senior commander told the AFP news agency on Sunday night. At least 13 civilians were killed and dozens more injured when the attack on the Hayat hotel began, authorities said.
“There have been no more shots from the building in the last hour,” the commander said. He did not provide any new information on the number of civilian casualties or the number of attackers killed by the Shebab militia. He announced a government press conference for Sunday morning.
The hotel, popular with politicians, was badly damaged when heavily armed security forces cracked down on the militants holed up early on the second night of the siege. Eyewitnesses watching from the roof of another building reported flames, powerful explosions and gunfire at the hotel.
The representative of the security forces then explained that the building must now be examined for explosives that may have been deposited by the attackers. It was unclear how many people were still in the building at the end of the siege. According to the authorities, dozens of people, including children, had previously been rescued.
The Shebab militia said Friday night on a website affiliated with them that a group of their fighters had broken into the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu. Officials and eyewitnesses spoke to the AFP news agency of several explosions and shots and subsequent firefights between Shebab fighters and security forces.
A few minutes after the first detonation, a second explosion occurred in front of the hotel, which hit security forces, rescue workers and civilians who had rushed to the scene of the attack in particular. According to police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan, the first blast came from a suicide bomber.
The situation was also unclear on Saturday. Shebab spokesman Abdiasis Abu-Musab said on Radio Andalus that the militia was still in control of the multi-story building. He also spoke of “heavy casualties” among the security forces. According to Site, a company specializing in monitoring extremist groups online, the Shebab militia said it had taken hostages, including government officials and security forces.
The head of Mogadishu’s largest emergency clinic, Mohamed Abdirahman Jama, said his facility was treating at least 40 people injured in the attack on the hotel and another attack on Saturday.
According to an official, this is a grenade attack on the seaside district of Hamar Jajab. Several people were seriously injured, including a young bride and her husband. No one initially claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Shebab militia, which is allied with the al-Qaeda terrorist network, has been fighting the Somali central government for around 15 years. In 2011, African Union forces successfully drove jihadists out of the capital, Mogadishu.
However, Shebab fighters continue to control large rural areas and are able to attack civilian and military targets. The attack on the Hayat Hotel is the deadliest attack in the Somali capital since the election of new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in May. She was condemned by the US, Britain, Turkey and the United Nations.
On Wednesday, the US government announced the killing of 13 Shebab fighters in airstrikes in central and southern Somalia. The jihadists were therefore involved in fighting against the Somali army. The US Air Force had flown several airstrikes against the militia in recent weeks.
In May, US President Joe Biden announced that he would be relocating soldiers to Somalia – thereby reversing the withdrawal from the country decided by his predecessor Donald Trump.
