Six civilians and three members of the security forces were killed in a six-hour assault by Islamists from the Al Shabab group on a hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, police said Saturday.
“Six civilians were killed in the attack… and ten others were injured. Three brave members of the security forces were also killed,” Somali police said in a statement, adding that 84 people were rescued from the Pearl Beach hotel.
The attack, claimed by Islamist fighters close to Al Qaeda, began shortly before 8:00 p.m. on Friday (5:00 p.m. GMT), when seven assailants broke into the Pearl Beach hotel, located on the Mogadishu seafront. It ended around 2am, according to police, after intense exchanges of fire between security forces and the attackers, all of whom were killed.
“The security forces managed to save 84 people, including women, children and the elderly,” the statement said.
The shebab have been waging an internationally-backed insurgency against the federal government for more than 15 years and have frequently targeted hotels, which often house senior Somali and foreign officials.
On Friday night, witnesses contacted by AFP reported intense shooting near the hotel. Several ambulances were parked nearby, an AFP journalist observed.
I was near the Pearl Beach restaurant when there was a loud explosion in front of the building,” witness Abdirahim Ali told AFP. “I managed to escape, but then loud shots were heard and security forces arrived.”
In August 2020, the shebab launched a major attack on the Elite, another hotel on the Lido beach, killing ten civilians and one police officer. It took security forces four hours to regain control of the hotel.
The shebab, affiliated with Al Qaeda and who call for the establishment of Islamic law in the country, have been fighting against the federal government backed by the international community for more than fifteen years. Expelled from the country’s main cities in 2011-2012, they remain firmly entrenched in vast rural areas.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud has declared “total war” on them and launched a military offensive in September, supported in particular by US airstrikes.
But the shebab continue to carry out bloody retaliatory attacks, underscoring their ability to strike at the heart of Somali cities and military installations. On 26 May they attacked a base of Ugandan soldiers from the African Union force in Somalia (Atmis) in the south of the country.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
