After about 30 hours, Somali troops ended a hostage situation by al-Shabaab terrorists at a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu. At least 15 people are believed to have been killed.
“The security forces have now ended the siege and the gunmen are dead, we have not had any gunshots from the building in the past hour,” said a security commander. He declined to say how many casualties there were. The government will hold a press conference on Sunday morning about the bloody attack, he said.
Earlier Saturday evening, a security agency official confirmed the deaths of 12 victims, mostly civilians. The jihadists claimed via Twitter to have killed at least 40 soldiers and injured 70.
The terror group detonated two car bombs at the Hayat Hotel on Friday evening and then entered the building with fire. Specialized units then spent about 30 hours taking out the attackers. For a long time, members of al-Shabaab were holed up on the second floor with an unknown number of hostages. This made the use of heavy weapons impossible. In addition, the stairwells had been rendered useless with explosives.
The hotel near the airport has been partially destroyed, according to eyewitnesses. It was a popular meeting place for politicians and government officials. Al-Shabaab (the youth) has been sowing death and destruction in the country for fifteen years and says it is pursuing a strict Islamic state.