At least 30 people were killed in a 30-hour attack by armed Islamist extremists on a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu. This was announced by the police and hospital staff on Sunday. The Ministry of Health spoke of 21 victims; 117 people were injured, some of them critically.
On Friday evening, fighters from the radical Islamic terrorist militia Al-Shabaab stormed the popular Hayat Hotel near Aden Adde International Airport. For several hours there was an exchange of fire between the terrorists and a Somali counter-terrorist unit trained by the US military. The special unit “Cheetah” of the Somali police was also deployed. However, the security forces only managed to stop the attack on Sunday night.
According to the police, the attackers, whose number remained unclear, were armed with hand grenades and Kalashnikovs. Originally, the security forces assumed four to five fighters; two of the terrorists were killed, according to police.
Hotel was badly damaged
The hotel, popular with politicians, was badly damaged in the course of the fighting when armed security forces took massive action against the Islamist fighters holed up inside at the beginning of the second night of the siege.
Several eyewitnesses, who watched the events from the roof of a nearby building, reported flames, powerful explosions and gunshots at the hotel.
The terrorist militia Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack and spoke of 40 fatalities. Immediately before the attack, two suicide bombers had blown themselves up in two cars. According to the terrorists, they were also responsible for an attack with a mortar shell at the airport. The Somali security authorities confirmed that a mother and her four children were killed in the attack.
The Shabaab militia, which is allied with the terrorist network al-Qaeda, has been fighting the Somali central government for around 15 years in order to establish its own rule based on Islamic law.
Expelled from the capital
In 2011, African Union (AU) forces successfully drove jihadists out of the capital, Mogadishu. However, Shabaab fighters continue to control large rural areas and are able to attack civilian and military targets.
The latest attack on the Hayat Hotel is the most serious attack in the Somali capital since the election of the new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in May this year.
Source: Nachrichten
