Somalia: At least 23 dead as forces end terror siege
Minister among 30 injured, PM fires intelligence and police chiefs
MOGADISHU: Somalia’s government on Sunday fired the country’s police and intelligence chiefs in the wake of a deadly extremist attack which killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 30 others.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s office said police chief Abdullahi Mohamed Ali and Gen Abdihakim Said were sacked after the cabinet voted to drop both officials.
The firings came after Somali security forces ended a nightlong siege at a Mogadishu hotel by five extremist attackers who stormed the building after a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the entrance gate on Saturday afternoon.
Troops regained control of the Nasa-Hablod hotel on Sunday morning, having killed three attackers and captured two alive, said Capt Mohamed Hussein.
Al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack.
Saturday’s attack came two weeks after more than 350 people were killed in a massive truck bombing on a busy Mogadishu street in Somalia’s worst-ever attack.
The assault started Saturday afternoon when a suicide truck bomb exploded outside the popular hotel in the capital. The blast twisted vehicles and caused massive damage to nearby buildings which were left with only their walls standing.
The attackers invaded the hotel and gunfire continued as security forces fought them inside the building. Two more blasts were heard, one when an attacker detonated a suicide vest.
Among the 30 injured in the siege was a government minister, who was rescued from the hotel as heavy gunfire continued in the shoot-out. Some extremists hurled grenades and cut off the building’s electricity as night fell.
Included in the dead were a mother and three children, including a baby, all shot in the head, Hussein said. Other victims included a senior Somali police colonel, a former lawmaker and a former government minister.
Saturday’s bomber had pretended his truck had broken down outside the gate, said police Col Mohamed Abdullahi. The bomber stopped outside the heavily fortified hotel and pretended to repair the truck before detonating it, he said.