WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES
BLOOD spattered
utensils, bullet-pocked walls and overturned chairs mark the reception area of
a prominent hotel in the Somali capital following an attack by Islamic
extremists that killed at least 24, including six attackers.
Somali special
forces stood over three bloodied bodies of the alleged attackers after
officials declared they have full control of the Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel
overnight, more than 12 hours after gunmen, believed to be six in number, from the
Islamic rebel group al-Shabab stormed into the hotel.
The gunfire has
stopped and security agents have gone through the whole building, said senior
police officer Capt. Mohamed Hussein. He had earlier said the gunmen were
believed to have occupied the third and fourth floors of the hotel in the
capital Mogadishu.
“The
operation has ended. We have taken full control of the hotel,” Mr Hussein said.
Eighteen people were killed in the attack, including one
soldier, said Mr Hussein. At least 28 were wounded, according to Hussein Ali,
an official of Mogadishu’s ambulance service.
Officials claimed to have killed six attackers but only
displayed the bodies of three and did not give the location of the bodies of
the other attackers.
Al-Shabab claimed some of the gunmen involved in the attack
escaped, in a statement released Saturday. The group vowed to carry out more
attacks.
Somalia’s
ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Office in Geneva, Yusuf Bari-Bari was among those killed in the attack, said
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Al-Shabab, an
al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremist group that has carried out many attacks in
Somalia, claimed responsibility for the assault on the hotel, which is popular
with Somali government officials and foreigners.
Al-Shabab
controlled much of Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011, but was pushed out of
Somalia’s capital and other major cities by African Union forces.
The attack
started around 4pm. Friday (midnight AEDT) when a suicide bomber detonated his
explosives-laden car at the gate of the hotel. Gunmen then quickly moved in.
Hours later, the
militants were still holed up in the hotel’s dark corridors and rooms. Sporadic
gunfire could be heard, but it appeared that the security forces waited until
daybreak before trying again to dislodge the militants.
The
attack was condemned by the African Union mission to Somalia in which troops
from several African countries support Somalia’s weak government.
“Our message to
the perpetrators of this inhuman act is, that their action will not dampen our
spirit for the common good of Somalia, but will further strengthen us to work
even harder to defeat the enemy of peace and development, with the aim of
rebuilding a stronger and stable Somalia,” said Ambassador Maman S. Sidikou,
the African Union’s representative in Somalia.
Al-Shabab
frequently carries out suicide bombings, drive-by shootings and other attacks
in Mogadishu, the seat of Somalia’s Western-backed government, often targeting
government troops, politicians and foreigners.
Despite major
setbacks in 2014, al-Shabab continues to wage a deadly insurgency against
Somalia’s government and remains a threat in the East African region.
The group has
carried out attacks in neighbouring countries, including Kenya, whose military
is part of the African Union troops bolstering Somalia’s weak government from
al-Shabab insurgency.
At least 67 people were killed in a September 2013 attack
by al-Shabab on a mall in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. The same group that executed 28 non-Muslims
passengers on a bus in
November 2014.
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