An official reported Saturday that at least eight civilians were killed in an Islamist terrorist attack on a popular hotel in the Somali capital, as security troops continued to battle gunmen holed inside.
Yesterday evening, fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab attacked the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu in a hail of gunfire and bomb explosions, trapping dozens of people.
Early Saturday morning, intermittent gunfire and loud explosions could still be heard.
It is the largest attack in Mogadishu since Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was elected in May, following several months of political unrest.
The security personnel continued to neutralize the terrorists encircled in a hotel room. At least eight civilians have been confirmed deceased so far, according to security commander Mohamed Abdikadir, speaking to AFP. Dozens of residents, including children, who were trapped in the building were rescued by the security forces.
Al-Shabaab, which has waged a brutal insurgency against Somalia’s frail central government for the past 15 years, claimed responsibility for the attack and stated on Saturday that it still possessed possession of the hotel.
Dozens of individuals have gathered in front of the four-story hotel to learn the fate of their loved ones.
Muudey Ali, an anxious witness, stated, “We had been searching for a relative who was stuck inside the hotel; she was verified dead along with six others, two of whom I knew.”
The administration has made no public statement regarding the attack.
Two volleys
At least two loud explosions were recorded by witnesses as the gunmen assaulted the hotel, which was frequented by government officials and ordinary Somalis along the airport route.
Friday evening, police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters that the initial explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who entered the hotel with many other gunmen.
Witnesses reported that a second explosion occurred within minutes after the initial explosion, inflicting injuries on rescuers, members of the security forces, and citizens who had hurried to the area.
In a brief statement on a pro-Shabaab website, the militants claimed responsibility, claiming that their forces were conducting “random shooting” inside the hotel.
Abdiaziz Abu-Musab, a spokesman for Al-Shabaab, stated on Saturday on the group’s Andalus radio that its soldiers were still in charge of the building and that they had caused “many casualties.”
The United States said earlier this week that American forces had killed thirteen Al-Shabaab insurgents in a central-southern airstrike when the Islamist extremists attacked Somali forces.
In recent weeks, the United States has conducted many airstrikes against insurgents.
In May, President Joe Biden reinstituted a US troop presence in Somalia to assist local authorities in their fight against Al-Shabaab, reversing a decision by his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw the majority of US personnel.
In recent weeks, Al-Shabaab fighters have also launched strikes along the Somalia-Ethiopia border, increasing concerns that the extremists may have adopted a new strategy.
Decades of anarchy
The new president of Somalia, Mohamud, stated last month that resolving Al-insurgency Shabaab’s would require more than a military solution, but that his government would only deal with the group when the moment was appropriate.
Al-Shabaab fighters were expelled from the capital in 2011 by an African Union force, but the group continues to control vast swaths of the surrounding countryside.
It continues to launch lethal attacks against political, civilian, and military targets, typically targeting hotels and restaurants.
This month, new Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre appointed the group’s former deputy leader and spokesman, Muktar Robow, to the position of minister of religion.
In August of 2017, Robow, 53, officially defected from Al-Shabaab, with the US government at one point offering a $5 million reward for his capture.
Since the overthrow of President Siad Barre’s military rule in 1991, the Horn of Africa country has been engulfed in anarchy.
His removal was followed by civil conflict and the rise of Al-Shabaab.
In October 2017, 512 people were killed when a truck filled with explosives exploded in a busy commercial neighborhood of Mogadishu. This was the bloodiest incident in Somalia to date.
According to the United Nations, in addition to a grinding jihadist insurgency, Somalia is in the throes of a disastrous drought that has forced one million people from their homes and placed the country on the brink of famine.