MOGADISHU, March 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Somali government troops shot dead three militants holed up in a building in central Mogadishu on Friday, police said, ending a day-long bomb and gun attack that killed at least 29 civilians.
Al Shabaab fighters launched the assault with a suicide car bomb outside the Maka Al-Mukarama hotel on Thursday evening, destroying other structures, igniting a huge fire and leaving people wounded in the rubble.
The militants fled to a neighbouring building and opened fire on special forces and other soldiers sent to flush them out throughout Friday.
“The operation is over and the building is now controlled by the security forces. The three militants were shot dead, their bodies are inside the building,” police officer Captain Osman Mohamed said.
It was the longest that the militants had held a position in Mogadishu since Somali troops backed by African Union peacekeepers forced them out of the city in 2011.
“Our special operation in Mogadishu successfully concluded after almost 24 hours. It targeted a hotel frequented by the members of the apostate government. Dozens of them eliminated, more injured,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, said.
He gave a different figure to police, saying: “Four of our Mujahideen were martyred, others managed to come back after the operation.”
The attack on the hotel came the same day that U.S. forces said they carried out an air strike that killed 26 militants in the Hiran area, north of the capital – part of an escalation of Washington’s fight against the al Qaeda-linked group.
Somalia’s government had earlier said the gunmen took hostages, but there were no immediate details on their fate.
“There are no civilian casualties in this building. But there may be dead civilians under the collapsed Hilco UK restaurant which is also nearby,” Captain Mohamed said.
Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991, and a further layer of chaos was added in 2015 with the formation in the north of a splinter group of former al Shabaab insurgents who pledged allegiance to Daesh.
At least 25 people have been killed this week in clashes between the two militant groups, a military official from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland said.
Al Shabaab has also carried out attacks in neighbouring countries contributing to the African Union gatekeeper force inside Somalia, including one on a hotel and office complex in Kenya in January that killed 21 people.
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington has stepped up attacks against the group, and U.S. Africa Command has announced six air strikes in recent days that it said killed a total of 83 militants since Feb 23. — NNN-AGENCIES
