Somalia: Security forces say they have regained control of the hotel attacked by al-Shabaab
The siege of the hotel attacked Friday night by radical Islamist Shebabs in the Somali capital Mogadishu is over, the state news agency SONNA and the public television channel SNTV said Saturday, without giving a balance sheet.
Members of the Somali security forces, here patrolling in Mogadishu, February 21, 2023. AP - Farah Abdi Warsameh
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Security forces neutralized militias (al-Shabab) that carried out a deadly terrorist attack on the Pearl Beach Hotel south of the capital Mogadishu on Lido Beach, and "shot them down," SNTV reported.
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Many civilians " were rescued, according to the same source. The information was confirmed by the SONNA agency.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the assault, claiming to have targeted a place frequented by the authorities.
On Friday evening, witnesses, contacted by AFP, had reported heavy gunfire near the establishment. Several ambulances were also parked nearby, an AFP journalist found.
In August 2020, al-Shabaab launched a major attack on the Elite, another hotel on Lido Beach, killing ten civilians and a policeman. It took security forces four hours to regain control of the facility.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab, which is calling for the establishment of Islamic law in the country, has been fighting the internationally backed federal government for more than fifteen years.
>> READ ALSO: Somalia: the attack on a base of the African Union force claimed by the Islamists Shebabs
Driven out of the country's main cities in 2011-2012, they remain firmly established in large rural areas.
>> READ ALSO: Somalia: the offensive against the Shebabs intensifies despite the attacks
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