29 killed in siege at Somali hotel
AN Islamist attack on a Mogadishu hotel ended yesterday after 29 people were killed during a siege lasting nearly 12 hours, police said.
The attack proved yet again that insurgents can carry out deadly assaults in the heart of the Somali capital.
Twin bombings in Mogadishu two weeks ago killed more than 350 people, the worst such attacks in Somalia’s history.
Al-Shabaab Islamist militants claimed responsibility for this weekend’s attack.
The government responded by sacking two of the country’s top security officials.
Police officer Abdullahi Nur said: “So far I am sure 29 people died – the death toll may rise.”
At least 12 of the dead were police officers, Nur said, and a woman, Madobe Nunow, was beheaded while her three children were shot dead.
A witness saw seven bodies lying inside the hotel.
Three militants were captured alive and two others blew themselves up after being shot, police said.
Some militants may have disguised themselves and escaped with the residents who were rescued from the hotel, one police officer said.
The attack began at about 5pm on Saturday when a car bomb rammed the gates of the Nasahablod Two hotel, close to the presidential palace, and destroyed the hotel’s defences.
Then gunmen stormed the building.
The explosion destroyed the front of the three-storey hotel and damaged the hotel next door.
Many Somali officials live in fortified hotels for the security they offer.
The government sacked the country’s police commander, Abdihakin Dahir Saiid, and the director-general of the National Intelligence Security Agency, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali, the prime minister’s office said.
Private ambulance service head Abdikadir Abdirahman complained his vehicles had been denied access to the blast site.
“After the hotel operation was over, we wanted to transport the casualties . . . all entrances to the scene were blocked by security forces.”
Al-Shabaab said 40 people had been killed, including three of its fighters who stormed the hotel.
The government and Al-Shabaab typically give different figures for victims.
The twin bombings in Mogadishu on October 14 killed at least 358 people, igniting nationwide outrage. – Reuters