Militants attack hotel in Mogadishu, 13 killed

MOGADISHU (SDN) – Fighters from the Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabab group attacked a popular hotel in the Somali capital on Friday evening, police said, with all five attackers were killed in a shootout with security forces along with eight civilians killed in the two blasts.

The attack started with a car bomb detonated outside SYL hotel followed by gunmen who tried to storm their way before security forces and hotel guards shot them dead.

Another car bomb was detonated outside the nearby Peace Garden in the space of 30 minutes, sending dozens of people at the park running for cover.

Somalia’s national intelligence agency later said that the situation was under control. Two soldiers were among the dead, the agency tweeted

Al Shabab spokesman claimed the responsibility for the hotel attack, saying that they were targeting ‘apostate’ officials at the hotel.

The attack comes one day after the group’s fighters targeted the presidential palace with mortar fire; however, the mortars that landed in a nearby residential area killed three people, including a woman and a child.

Television pictures showed medical workers carrying bloodied dead bodies while survivors clambered over a wall to safety.

Despite being ousted from large swathes in south and central Somalia, Al Shabab continues to carry out well-planned assaults in the past few years, raising questions about whether the militant group shifted tactics to embrace high-profile attacks targeting landmarks, as parts of the group’s new guerrilla attacks.