Terrorist siege in Somalia ends after explosions kill 29
Al-Shabaab triggers deadly explosion near Somalian hotel; troops take on militants holed up nearby
MOGADISHU: Somali troops shot dead three Islamist militants holed up in a building in central Mogadishu on Friday, ending a day-long bomb and gun attack that killed at least 29 civilians.
Islamist al Shabaab fighters launched the assault by setting off a suicide car bomb outside the Maka Al-Mukarama hotel on Thursday evening, destroying other structures, igniting a huge fire and leaving people wounded in the rubble. The militants- who are fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government - fled to a neighbouring building and opened fire on special forces and other soldiers throughout Friday. “The operation is over and the building is now controlled by the security forces. The three militants were shot dead, their bodies are inside the building,” police officer Capt Osman Mohamed told Reuters.
It was the longest that the militants had held a position in Mogadishu since So mali troops backed by African Union peacekeepers forced them out of the city in 2011.
The attack on the hotel came the same day that US forces said they carried out an air strike that killed 26 militants in the Hiran area, north of the capital - part of an escalation of Washington’s fight against the al Qaeda-linked group. Somalia’s government had earlier said the gun men took hostages, but there were no immediate details on their fate.
“There are no civilian casualties in this building. But there may be dead civilians under the collapsed Hilco UK restaurant which is also nearby,” Captain Mohamed said.
Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991, and a further layer of chaos was added in 2015 with the formation in the north of a splinter group of former al Sh ab a a bins ur- gents who pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Al Shabaab has also carried out attacks in neigh-bouring countries contributing to the African Union gate-keeper force inside Somalia, including one on a hotel and office complex in Kenya in January that killed 21 people.