Somalia hotel massacre death toll rises to 11
Ten civilians and one police officer were killed in a gun and bomb attack by Al-Shabaab fighters on an upscale beachfront hotel in Somalia's capital on Sunday, the official told AFP.
Security forces took four hours to regain control of the Elite Hotel in the Lido beach area of Mogadishu after five assailants stormed it in early stages Sunday evening, said information ministry spokesman Ismael Mukhtaar Omar.
"Ten people were dead and five militants were also killed, and something Somalia special police officer," Omar told AFP.
It was not yet determined how Somali security forces were able to end the siege on the hotel and kill the assailants, who at one point were thought to have taken hostages.
Earlier on Sunday, as the siege was still ongoing, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that among the assailants had died in the automobile bomb explosion that kicked off the attack and two others had died in a shootout.
Ambulance employees at the scene reported that at least 28 persons were wounded.
Witnesses said the attack commenced with much explosion and people ran from the area as gunfire could be heard from the hotel, which is frequented by government officials.
"The blast was very heavy and I possibly could see smoke in the region. There is chaos and persons are fleeing from local buildings," said witness Ali Sayid Adan.
The dead included government official Abdirasak Abdi, who worked at the information ministry, his colleague Hussein Ali said.
Al-Shabaab said they completed the attack, according to a statement translated by the website Intelligence Group.
The statement claimed its fighters "took control over the hotel" in the "martyrdom-seeking operation."
Somalia plunged into chaos following the 1991 overthrow of then-President Siad Barre's military regime, resulting in years of clan warfare accompanied by the rise of Al-Shabaab which once controlled large parts of the country and Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab was driven out of your capital in 2011, but its militants continue steadily to wage war against the federal government, undertaking regular attacks.
The other day, four Shabaab fighters held in Mogadishu's central prison were killed in an extreme shootout with security forces once they somehow got their practical weapons within the facility.
The group has targeted hotels multiple times through the years, including in Feb 2019 when it killed at least 20 persons in an automobile bomb and gun attack on a hotel in Mogadishu that lasted for nearly 24 hours.
A month before that, Al-Shabaab killed 21 persons in a siege on an upscale hotel in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, an assault that highlighted its capability to expand its network beyond Somalia's borders.
Its last major attack in Mogadishu was in Dec 2019, when it slaughtered 81 people by detonating a car packed with explosives.
It is difficult to state whether the relative lull this season reflected improved capacity for Somali security forces or a change in strategy by Al-Shabaab, said Omar Mahmood, Somalia senior analyst for International Crisis Group.
For the past year, Somali forces have already been engaged within an offensive in the local Lower Shabelle region designed to stymie efforts by Al-Shabaab to move weapons in to the capital, Mahmood noted.
But there has been "an uptick in activity" in Mogadishu since late June including suicide attacks targeting government and military facilities, he said.
The claim of responsibility distributed on Sunday stressed that the Elite Hotel "is inhabited by a big number of government officials."
"This is sort of getting back again to the attacks they i did so," Mahmood said.
"Al-Shabaab sees these hotels as an extension of the federal government more or less, so they are targeted in that way." - AFP
