Al-Shabaab jihadists stormed the popular Hayat hotel on Friday night, in an exchange of gunfire and explosions. According to Somali officials, at least 13 civilians were killed by these Al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters.
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Somali security forces put an end, on Saturday evening August 20, to the siege of a hotel in Mogadishu, by Shebab jihadists, which lasted around thirty hours and caused more than a dozen civilian victims, declared a senior security official.
‘Security forces have now ended the siege and the gunmen are dead, we have not had any fire from the building in the past hour’, announced around midnight this official on condition of anonymity. Jihadists stormed the popular Hayat hotel on Friday night, in an exchange of gunfire and explosions. According to Somali officials, at least 13 civilians were killed by these Al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters.
It is the largest attack in Mogadishu since Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, took office in June, after months of political instability. The Shebab, who have been engaged in an insurrection against the Somali federal government for 15 years, have claimed responsibility for this operation.