Security chief sacked as siege ends
Death toll rises to 27 after hotel in Mogadishu attacked
Mogadishu, Oct. 29: The death toll from a deadly weekend attack on a hotel in Mogadishu has risen to 27, the Somali government said on Sunday, announcing the dismissal of the country’s police and intelligence chiefs.
The move came after AlQaeda aligned Shabaab gunmen staged coordinated bomb attacks outside a hotel in the north of the Somali capital on Saturday before storming the building. Among the 30 injured in Saturday's 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.
The latest toll was given by security minister Mohamed Abukar Islow at a cabinet meeting at which ministers approved the dismissal of intelligence agency boss Abdillahi Mohamed Sanbalooshe and the police chief Abdihakim Dahir said. 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.
The two were “fired for the purpose of serious accountability,” said a statement read by information minister Abdirahman Omar Osman after the meeting. The sackings come two weeks after Somalia suffered its deadliest-ever terrorist attack in which at least 358 people were killed in a huge truck bombing in Mogadishu.Mr Osman said five people had so far been arrested in connection with the October 14 attack. — AFP