Al Shabab kill at least 10 in Somalia hotel

Overnight shoot-out follows car bomb outside Mogadishu hotel used by politicians and military top brass

Cars burn outside the Ambassador Hotel, Mogadishu, scene of an all-night shoot out by Al Shabaab on June 1, 2016. Mohamed Abdiwahab / Agence France-Presse

Mogadishu / Gunmen holed up in a central Mogadishu hotel for more than 12 hours killed at least 10 people in the latest attack in Somalia by the Al-Qaeda group, Al Shabab.

The assault began on Wednesday evening with the explosion of a huge car bomb which tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel in the heart of the capital, leaving burning cars and debris strewn across the usually busy main street. After the blast an unknown number of gunmen then entered the hotel and shooting continued overnight until Thursday morning when Somalia’s security minister declared the attack over.

“All the gunmen were killed by the security forces,” said security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed. “More than 10 people are so far confirmed dead and many others are wounded.” As the minister spoke, the bodies of three suspected gunmen involved in the attack were displayed in the dirt outside the hotel.

Rescuers were searching for survivors and bodies in the badly-damaged building and the number of victims is expected to rise, he added. According to medical sources, around 40 people were injured. The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), which protects the internationally-backed government of Somalia said two members of parliament were among the dead. One witness Mohamed Elmi, said the blast “destroyed the whole area.”

Al Shabab was quick to claim responsibility for the attack. The extremist group, which is linked to Al Qaeda and seeks to overthrow the Somali government, has regularly targeted hotels which are popular with government official and wealthy Somalis. The group lost its foothold in the Somali capital in 2011 but continues to hit military, government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), which protects the internationally-backed government said two members of parliament were among the dead.

Also on Wednesday, Somali special forces claimed to have killed Mohamed Mohamud Ali — also known as Dulyadin and Kuno — the suspected organiser of an attack on a university in Garissa, Kenya, in April 2015 that killed 148 people, most of them students.

“Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud Ali ... were killed by the Somali commandos and the special forces of Jubaland,” said Abdirashid Janan, security minister for Jubaland, a federal state in southern Somalia.

The Garissa attack was the deadliest in Kenya since the Al-Qaeda bombing of the US embassy in 1998. The US also said it had killed a senior Al Shabab figure, Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, in a drone strike on May 27, the latest in an increasing number of air strikes and US-led or US-backed raids in Somalia targeting Al Shabab leaders and recruits.

“Da’ud was one of Shabab’s most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. He said Da’ud was “presumed killed”.

Violence is expected to increase with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a time when Al Shabab traditionally increases activity.

* Agence France Presse