A hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, was hit by gunfire and explosions on Friday as members of a Jihadist organisation overtook the establishment.
The jihadist organisation, Al-Shabaab, which has ties to Al-Qaeda has claimed ownership of the attack. The group has been conducting a violent insurgency against the fragile central government of Somalia for about 15 years.
In a statement on a pro-Shabaab website, the militants claimed said: “A group of Al-Shabaab attackers forcibly entered Hotel Hayat in Mogadishu, the fighters are carrying out random shooting inside the hotel.”
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Talking to AFP, Security official Abdukadir Hassan said that the attack on the Hayat Hotel led to a gunfight between security personnel and the Islamist militants who are still hiding inside the building.
“A huge blast went off a few minutes before the gunmen forced their way into the hotel,” said Hassan.
“We don’t have the details so far but there are casualties, and the security forces are now engaging with the enemy who are holed up inside the building,” he added.
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While ambulance workers reported that three were wounded in the attack, witnesses at the site at the KM4 intersection said two more had suffered injuries.
A Reuters report quoting Abdikadir Abdirahman, director and founder of Mogadishu’s Aamin ambulance services puts the number of wounded at nine.
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The original explosion was triggered by a suicide bomber who attacked the hotel with a number of other shooters, Somali police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters.
He claimed that the attackers were “now being engaged by the police forces, they will be neutralised very soon.”
After the initial explosion, according to witnesses, there was a second bomb outside the hotel that injured rescue workers, security personnel, and bystanders who had rushed to the site.
(With inputs from agencies)
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