The attack began on Wednesday morning when the militants rammed a car into the gate of Dayah Hotel, located near the Somali parliament, and proceeded to storm inside and exchange gunfire with security guards.
Islamist militants detonated a car bomb at the entrance of a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu and opened fire inside the lobby, killing at least 28 people, according to government officials and medical workers.
The attack began on Wednesday morning when the militants rammed a car into the gate of Dayah Hotel, located near the Somali parliament, and proceeded to storm inside and exchange gunfire with security guards. AFP reports that a second blast went off shortly thereafter, injuring at least four journalists who had arrived to report on the attack.
“We have confirmed 28 people died and 43 others injured in the two blasts at the hotel,” Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of the Mogadishu ambulance service, told Reuters. Minster of Security Abdirizak Umar had earlier reported that 15 people were killed.
Reuters reports that the radical Islamist terrorist group, al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the assault.
According to a local police officer, Colonel Abdiqadir Hussein, security agents were able to secure the hotel after a standoff with the terrorists.
“We have rescued the people and concluded the operation at Dayah Hotel,” he told Reuters.
Captain Mohammed Hussein told the Associated Press (AP) that members of Somalia’s parliament were thought to have been inside the hotel during the attack.
Al-Shabaab controlled much of Somalia until August 2011, when African Union and Somali forces drove the terrorist group out of its major strongholds, including Mogadishu. However, its remaining members continue to launch terrorist attacks in an effort to overthrow the government and implement Sharia law in the country.
