SOMALI FORCES END AL-SHABAB SIEGE AT MOGADISHU HOTEL; HEAVY CASUALTIES REPORTED

Sun 21 August 2022:

Somali forces broke the 30-hour siege of a hotel in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, after security personnel removed fighters’ explosives from the structure.

The government confirmed Sunday that 21 people were killed in the terrorist attack on a popular hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday evening.

The Minister of Health Ali Haji Adan said 15 of the wounded persons sustained serious injuries and were in critical condition after the attackers who had detonated explosives and blasted their way inside the popular Hayat hotel and engaged the security forces in a gunfight that lasted 30 hours.

SOMALI FORCES BATTLE TO END MOGADISHU HOTEL SIEGE

“Twenty-one people were killed and 117 others wounded in the heinous terrorist attack on Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu”, Haji told the state-owned Somali National Television.

Earlier, Police Commissioner Abdi Hassan Mohamed told journalists in Mogadishu that the security forces ended al-Shabab’s siege of Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday morning.

Mohamed said the specialized security forces focused entirely on rescuing the people at the scene during the operations, noting that 106 people including women and children were rescued.

SOMALIA HOTEL SIEGE ENTERS SECOND DAY WITH AT LEAST 12 DEATHS

The attack was the biggest in Mogadishu since Somalia’s new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took office in May and comes as government forces have stepped up operations against al-Shabab.

The armed group linked to al-Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the siege, has been fighting to topple the Somali government for more than 10 years. It wants to establish its own rule based on interpretation of Islamic law.

Al-Shabab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu-Musab told the group’s Andalus Radio earlier on Saturday its forces had “inflicted heavy casualties”.

Attack on Mogadishu hotel leaves several injured; Jihadist group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility.

At least 10 people reported killed in the attack claimed by the al-Shabab group, as security forces continue to battle gunmen holed up inside the hotel.#Mogadishu pic.twitter.com/oq6Nik9NAr

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) August 20, 2022

Somalia’s allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as the United Nations and the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), which is tasked with helping Somali forces take over primary responsibility for security by the end of 2024, have strongly condemned the attack.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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