MOGADISHU, somalia — Blood-spattered utensils, bullet-pocked walls and overturned chairs mark the reception area of a prominent hotel in the Somali capital after an attack by Islamic extremists that killed at least 24, including six attackers.
Somali special forces stood over three bodies of the alleged attackers after officials declared they had full control of the Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel on Saturday, more than 12 hours after gunmen, thought to be six in number, from the Islamic rebel group al-Shabab stormed into the hotel.
The gunfire has stopped and security agents have gone through the whole building, said senior police Capt. Mohamed Hussein. He had earlier said the gunmen were thought to have occupied the third and fourth floors of the hotel in the capital Mogadishu.
“The operation has ended. We have taken full control of the hotel,” Hussein said.
Eighteen people were killed in the attack, including one solider, said Hussein. At least 28 were wounded, said Hussein Ali, an official of Mogadishu’s ambulance service.
Officials claimed to have killed six attackers but displayed the bodies of only three and did not give the location of the bodies of the other attackers.
Al-Shabab claimed some of the gunmen involved in the attack escaped, in a statement released Saturday. The group vowed to carry out more attacks.
Yusuf Bari-Bari, Somalia’s ambassador to Switzerland and permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, was among those killed in the attack, said Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
The attack started around 4 p.m. Friday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the gate of the hotel. Gunmen then moved in.
Hours later, the militants were holed up in the hotel’s corridors and rooms. Sporadic gunfire could be heard, but it appeared that the security forces waited until daybreak before trying again to dislodge the militants.
The attack was condemned by the African Union mission to Somalia in which troops from several African countries support Somalia’s weak government.
“Our message to the perpetrators of this inhuman act is that their action will not dampen our spirit for the common good of Somalia, but will further strengthen us to work even harder to defeat the enemy of peace and development, with the aim of rebuilding a stronger and stable Somalia,” said Ambassador Maman S. Sidikou, the African Union’s representative in Somalia.
About al-shabab
Al-Shabab is an al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremist group that has carried out many attacks in Somalia. The group claimed responsibility for the assault on the hotel, which is popular with Somali government officials and foreigners. The group controlled much of Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011 but was pushed out of Somalia’s capital and other major cities by African Union forces. Al-Shabab frequently carries out suicide bombings, drive-by shootings and other attacks in Mogadishu, the seat of Somalia’s Western-backed government. The Associated Press
