(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) Somali security forces said Monday they have ended a more than
20-hour siege at a popular hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu,
that left at least 15 people dead including six attackers, trend reports citing
xinhua .
Sadiq Dudishe, Spokesman of the Somali Police Force said five of
al-Shabab attackers were shot dead, one blew himself up after the
militants stormed Villa Rosa Hotel in Mogadishu at around 8:00 p.m.
on Sunday.
Dudishe said eight civilians and one soldier were killed and
five were wounded in the attack which has been roundly condemned by
the international community.
'Sixty people were safely rescued from the hotel,' he told a
televised news conference in Mogadishu.
The heavily fortified hotel is a popular hangout spot for senior
government officials including the business community and three
ministers were inside the facility at the time of the attack, the
police said.
It was unclear how the extremists stormed inside the heavily
secured hotel which is near the presidential palace but witnesses
said they first heard gunshots at the gates of the hotel before the
attackers stormed inside.
Al-Shabab, which has waged nearly two decades of insurgency to
topple the internationally-backed government, claimed
responsibility for the latest attack, saying its fighters were
targeting a gathering of officials inside the hotel.
The latest hotel assault is the third attack by the al-Shabab
since the new government took over in May.
The militants in August killed 21 people at Hayat hotel in a
siege that lasted for 30 hours and an attack on Tawakal Hotel in
the southern city of Kismayo in October where 11 people lost their
lives.
The Villa Rosa Hotel attack came hours after the government
announced that more than 100 al-Shabab extremists were killed in an
operation backed by the international partners in the central
region, two days over 60 militants were killed in the southern part
of the country.
Al-Shabab extremist group was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011
but it is still capable of conducting attacks, targeting government
installations, hotels, restaurants, and public spaces.
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