Somali security forces have ended an hour-long siege of a Mogadishu hotel attacked Friday evening by radical Al-Shabaab Islamists, two official media said on Saturday morning, without giving details of the toll.
“Security forces neutralized the (shebab) militias who carried out a deadly terrorist attack on the Pearl Beach hotel” south of the capital Mogadishu on the Lido beach, and “shot them down” the television channel reported. public SNTV.
“Many civilians” were rescued, according to the same source. The information was confirmed by the public press agency SONNA.
The end of the siege was also confirmed to AFP by security and intelligence sources, who requested anonymity.
The Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming to have targeted a place frequented by the authorities.
Friday evening, witnesses, contacted by AFP, had reported heavy shooting near the establishment. Yaasin Nur, who was nearby, said the hotel’s restaurant “was full of people because it was recently renovated”.
Several ambulances were also parked nearby, noted an AFP journalist.
In August 2020, the shebabs launched a major attack on the Elite, another hotel on the Lido beach very popular with the authorities, killing ten civilians and a policeman. It took the security forces four hours to regain control of the establishment.
The Shebab, affiliated with Al-Qaeda and who demand the establishment of Islamic law in the country, have been fighting for more than fifteen years the federal government supported by the international community.
Driven out of the main cities of the country in 2011-2012, they remain firmly established in vast rural areas.
Somali President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud declared a “total war” on them, and launched a military offensive in September, notably supported by American airstrikes.
But the Shebab continue to carry out bloody attacks in retaliation, underlining their ability to strike at the heart of Somali cities and military installations.
On May 26, they attacked a base held by Ugandan soldiers of the African Union Force in Somalia (Atmis) in the south of the country, killing at least 54 soldiers.
On October 29, 2022, two car bombs exploded in Mogadishu, killing 121 people and injuring 333, the deadliest attack in five years in this country also affected by a historic drought.
A triple bombing in central Beledweyne also left 30 people dead, including local officials, in early October and at least 21 hotel guests in Mogadishu were killed in a 30-hour siege in August.
The siege had raised questions about how Islamist militants managed to reach the closely guarded heart of Mogadishu’s administrative district undetected.
In a report to the UN Security Council in February, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 2022 had been the deadliest year for civilians in Somalia since 2017, largely due to Al-Shabaab attacks.
06/10/2023 09:50:44 – Mogadishu (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
