The thirty-hour siege of a hotel in Mogadishu by Chabab jihadists ended on Saturday evening August 20.
‘Security forces have now ended the siege and the gunmen are dead, we have not had any fire from the building in the past hour’announced, around midnight, to Agence France-Presse (AFP) a senior security official, on condition of anonymity.
He added that the government would address the press on Sunday morning on this bloody attack which caused several civilian victims. According to a report announced Saturday midday, at least 13 civilians were killed at the start of the attack by these fighters affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The person in charge did not specify, at the end of the occupation of the Hayat hotel, the number of victims among the civilians and among the assailants.
The establishment was destroyed by a bombardment by the security forces aimed at eliminating the attackers who had entrenched themselves there, but the official stressed that it must now be cleared of all the explosives which could have been placed there.
Scores of people were trapped when the assault began on Friday evening, and although officials said dozens had been rescued, including children, the number of people left behind interior is unknown.
“Heavy Losses”
According to a witness, Hayat Ali, three children from the same family, aged between four and seven, were found by the security forces, in a state of shock, hiding in the hotel toilets.
“I managed to run to a nearby exit, away from the armed men”said Hussein Ali, present with colleagues in the establishment. “The armed men started shooting, I could hear the shots behind me, but thank God (…) we managed to escape. » Most “those who preferred to hide inside the building, including one of my colleagues, died”he added.
It is the largest attack in Mogadishu since Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, took office in June, after months of political instability.
An Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda, the Chabab have been engaged in an insurrection against the Somali federal government for fifteen years. They had claimed responsibility for this attack in a brief statement on a website that is favorable to them. Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu-Musab told their station, Radio Andalus, on Saturday that the group had “inflicted heavy losses” to the security forces.
Rain of shells in another district of Mogadishu
Somalia’s allies, including the United States, United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as the United Nations, have strongly condemned the attack.
A rain of shells also fell on Saturday in another district of the capital, Hamar Jajab, located by the sea, injuring twenty including children, declared to AFP the commissioner Mucawiye Muddey. These shots were not immediately claimed.
According to the director of Mogadishu’s main hospital, Dr Mohamed Abdirahman Jama, at least 40 people were being treated after being injured in the two weekend attacks.