Published on: 08/20/2022 – 07:26 Modified on: 08/20/2022 – 13:37
13 people were killed in an attack by radical Shebab Islamists in a hotel in Mogadishu on Friday. It is the largest attack in the Somali capital since the election of new Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud in May.
Thirteen civilians were killed in clashes between al-Shabaab radical Islamists who attacked a Mogadishu hotel in the Somali capital on Friday, August 19, and security forces trying to neutralize them.
“Security forces continued to neutralize the terrorists who were surrounded in a room of the hotel building, most people were rescued but at least eight civilians are confirmed dead at this time,” Somali security official Mohamed Abdikadir said on Saturday. “We are receiving information on five other victims whose deaths have been confirmed, and the total number of civilians killed by the terrorists is 13,” he added a few hours later.
Jihadists stormed the popular Hayat Hotel in an exchange of gunfire and explosions with security forces on Friday night. “Security forces rescued dozens of civilians, including children, trapped in the building,” added Mohamed Abdikadir.
Multiple explosions
The attackers were still holed up at the hotel early Saturday and sporadic gunfire and loud explosions could be heard in the area. Somali police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.
Witnesses said a second blast occurred minutes after the first, killing rescuers, security personnel and civilians who rushed to the hotel after the first blast.
An Islamist group with ties to al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, which has been involved in an insurgency against the Somali federal government for the past fifteen years, claimed responsibility for the attack. “A group of al-Shabaab attackers has entered the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu, the fighters are shooting indiscriminately inside the hotel,” the group confirmed in a brief statement on a pro website.
It is the largest attack in Mogadishu since the election of Somalia’s new President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, in May.
An intensification of attacks
Al-Shabaab were driven out of the country’s main cities, including Mogadishu, in 2011, but remain entrenched in large rural areas. In recent months, they have stepped up their attacks.
On Wednesday, the US Army said it had killed 13 Shebab militia officers in an airstrike who were attacking Somali Regular Forces soldiers in a remote area of that Horn of Africa country. The strike was carried out near Teedaan, about 300 km north of the capital Mogadishu, according to a statement by the American military command in Africa (Africom) on Sunday.
The United States has conducted several airstrikes on militants in recent weeks. For its part, al-Shabaab also carried out attacks on the Somalia-Ethiopia border, raising concerns about the stability of the border region.
Somalia’s new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud said last month that a military approach would not be enough to end al-Shabaab’s violent insurgency, stressing that his government would only negotiate with the jihadist group when the time was right.
Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre announced in early August the appointment of a former radical Islamist leader-turned-politician as Minister for Religious Affairs in the Somali government. Muktar Robow, aka Abu Mansour, publicly resigned from the movement he helped found in August 2017.
With AFP