Somali forces end Mogadishu siege by Islamic militants that left 21 dead

 
Control: Somali government soldiers in position outside the Maka Al-Mukarama Hotel (Picture: REUTERS/Feisal Omar)
Gareth Vipers28 March 2015

Somali special forces have ended a hotel siege by Islamic militants that left at least 21 people dead in Mogadishu.

Government troops entered the capital's Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel more than 12 hours after gunmen from the Islamic rebel group al-Shabab entered the building and took hostages.

Somali special forces stood over three bloodied bodies of the alleged attackers after officials declared they had full control of the Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel in Mogadishu, more than 12 hours after gunmen took up positions in the hotel.

Local media reported that the six attackers, believed to have been from the Islamic rebel group al-Shabab, were killed by security forces.

The gunfire has stopped and security agents control the whole building, said senior police officer Captain Mohamed Hussein. He had earlier said the gunmen were believed to have occupied the third and fourth floors of the hotel.

"The operation has ended. We have taken full control of the hotel," he said.

Mr Hussein said security forces found four more bodies in the hotel today, plus nine dead on Friday. Four more people died in the hospital, according to Duniya Mohamed, a doctor at Madina hospital in Mogadishu. An ambulance service official said 28 people were wounded.

Six attackers were killed, said Ridwan Abdiweli, Somalia's government spokesman. Officials displayed the bodies of three attackers but did not give an explanation of where the bodies of the other attackers were.

Somalia's ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Yusuf Bari-Bari was among those killed in the attack, said Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Al-Shabab, an al Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group that has carried out many attacks in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the assault on the hotel, which is popular with Somali government officials and foreigners.

Al-Shabab controlled much of Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011, but was pushed out of Somalia's capital and other major cities by African Union forces.

The attack started around yesterday afternoon when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the gate of the hotel. Gunmen then quickly moved in.

Hours later, the militants were still holed up in the hotel's dark corridors and rooms. Sporadic gunfire could be heard, but it appeared that the security forces waited until daybreak before trying again to dislodge the militants.

The rebels are said to have then stormed into the first, second and third floors of the hotel where rooms are located and held several people hostage.

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