At least eight civilians were killed in clashes between radical Al-Shabaab Islamists, who attacked a Mogadishu hotel in the Somali capital on Friday August 19, and security forces trying to neutralize them.
"Security forces continued to neutralize the terrorists who were surrounded in a room in the hotel building, most people were rescued but at least eight civilians are at this stage confirmed dead," an official said on Saturday. Somali security official, Mohamed Abdikadir.
Jihadists stormed the popular Hayat hotel on Friday night in an exchange of gunfire and explosions with security forces.
"The security forces rescued dozens of civilians, including children, who were trapped in the building," added Mohamed Abdikadir.
Multiple Explosions
The assailants were still entrenched in the hotel, early on Saturday sporadic gunfire and loud explosions were heard in the area.
Somali police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.
Witnesses said a second explosion took place a few minutes after the first, causing casualties among rescuers, members of the security forces and civilians who rushed to the hotel after the first explosion.
An Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, which has been engaged in an insurrection against the Somali federal government for 15 years, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
"A group of Al-Shabaab assailants forced their way into the Hayat hotel in Mogadishu, the fighters are firing at random inside the hotel," the group confirmed in a brief statement on a pro website. -shebab.
It is the largest attack in Mogadishu since the election of Somalia's new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, in May.
An intensification of attacks
The Shebab were driven out of the main cities of the country, including Mogadishu in 2011, but they remain established in vast rural areas.
In recent months, they have intensified their attacks.
On Wednesday, the American army announced that it had killed in an airstrike 13 Shebab militiamen who were attacking soldiers of the Somali regular forces in a remote area of this country in the Horn of Africa.
The strike was carried out on Sunday near Teedaan, about 300 km north of the capital Mogadishu, according to a statement from the American military command in Africa (Africom).
The United States has carried out several airstrikes on militants in recent weeks.
For their part, the Shebab also carried out attacks on the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, raising concerns about the stability in this border region.
Somalia's new president Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud said last month that a military approach is insufficient to end the violent Al-Shabaab insurgency, stressing that his government would only negotiate with the jihadist group when the time is deemed appropriate.
At the beginning of August, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre announced the appointment of a former leader of the radical Islamists who became a politician, as Minister of Religious Affairs in the Somali government.
Muktar Robow, alias Abu Mansour, publicly defected in August 2017 from the movement he helped found.
With AFP
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