Somali security forces have ended a bloody attack by members of the terrorist organization Al-Shabab on a hotel in the capital Mogadishu after a 30-hour siege.
“The security forces have ended the siege now and the attackers are dead. We have not received shots from the building in the last hour,” said an official on condition of anonymity, quoted by AFP.
The source did not offer information on the number of dead in the Hayat hotel, nor on the killed members of Al-Shabab, but said that the government would hold a press conference to give details.
The hotel was almost destroyed after a bombardment by security forces to eliminate entrenched assailants, but its ruins will be examined for possible explosives that may have been planted, he explained.
A security official said 13 civilians were killed, while a hospital director said some 40 wounded were being treated.
A Somali police spokesman said a first blast was caused by a suicide bomber, followed by another that killed rescuers.
Al-Shabab is a terrorist organization of Somali origin related to Al-Qaeda, which it formally joined in 2012. They are responsible for the kidnapping of two Cuban doctors in Kenya in 2019.
