MOGADISHU // At least 17 people were killed in the night-long siege of a popular Mogadishu restaurant by Al Shabab extremists that ended on Thursday morning.
Soldiers surrounded the restaurant building and used guns mounted on the backs of vehicles to neutralise the militants. Troops entered the ground floor while the insurgent snipers held positions upstairs.
All five attackers were killed and after dawn the soldiers secured the building, said senior Somali police office Captain Mohamed Hussein. The troops’ efforts to take control of the restaurant were slowed by the darkness of night, forcing them to wait until morning, said Mr Hussein.
Al Shabab claimed responsibility as the restaurant was under siege.
Somali survivors described harrowing scenes in which attackers hunted patrons of the popular Pizza House restaurant.
Survivors said they hid under tables and curtains as attackers continued firing in the restaurant and hunted for patrons. Attackers moved from room to room, looking for people, said a survivor.
“I never thought I would have the chance to see the sun again. They were killing people on sight,” Saida Hussein, a university student, said. She survived the attack by hiding behind a large table downstairs.
Another survivor, Aden Karie, was wounded by an attacker who spotted him moving behind a curtain in the dark room.
“He shot at me twice and one bullet struck me on the leg,” said Mr Karie as he was taken to an awaiting ambulance.
The roofs were blown off the restaurant and nearby buildings from the powerful blasts.
The bodies of five girls thought to have been killed by the militants were found in the restaurant, said police. Inside the building, the body of a Syrian man who worked as a chef at restaurant lay near the rubble of a blood-spattered and bullet-marked wall.
The attack began on Wednesday evening when a car bomb exploded at the gate to the restaurant and then gunmen posing as military forces stormed into the establishment.
An ambulance driver with the Amin Ambulance service, Khalif Dahir, said on Thursday they had carried 17 bodies and 26 wounded people. Most of the victims were young men who had been entering the Pizza House when the vehicle exploded, Mr Hussein said.
The gunmen “were dressed in military uniforms. They forced those fleeing the site to go inside” the restaurant, witness Nur Yasin said.
Wednesday night’s blast largely destroyed the restaurant’s facade and sparked a fire. While Al Shabab claimed to have attacked the neighbouring Posh Treats restaurant, which is frequented by the city’s elite and was damaged in the blast, security officials said the Pizza House was targeted instead.
Security forces rescued Asian, Ethiopian, Kenyan and other workers at Posh Treats as the attack continued, Mr Hussein said.
The Somalia-based Al Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu, including hotels, military checkpoints and areas near the presidential palace. It has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it.
Al Shabab last year became the deadliest extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Washington-based Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.
The extremist group also faces a new military push from the US after Donald Trump approved expanded operations, including air strikes, against Al Shabab.
On Sunday, the US military in Africa said it carried out an air strike in southern Somalia that killed eight Islamic extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp.
Somalia president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed confirmed that air strike and said such attacks would disrupt the group’s ability to conduct new attacks.
With a new federal government established, pressure is growing on Somalia’s military to assume full responsibility for the country’s security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, Amisom, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution extending until March 31, 2018 its political mission in Somalia, which is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state. The resolution recognised that “this is a critical moment for Somalia”.
* Associated Press