Several people were also injured and others, including children, had to be rescued by security services from Mogadishu’s Hayat Hotel. Most of those killed are reported to have been civilians. The attack began with two car bomb explosions, followed by gunfire around 4pm local time (6pm UK time) on Friday. An ambulance service said it took nine injured people away from the hotel, large parts of which were said to have been damaged. Image: Security forces dealing with the attack surround a car Gunfire was still heard in the early hours of Saturday as security forces tried to contain the last militants believed to be in the hotel. It was not known how many remained, as they were thought to be hiding on the top floor of the hotel. Eyewitness Abdullahi Hussein told the AP: “We were drinking tea near the hotel lobby when we heard the first explosion followed by gunfire. I immediately ran to the hotel rooms on the ground floor and locked it. “The militants went straight upstairs and started shooting. I was inside the room until the security forces arrived and rescued me.” He said that as he was leaving the complex he saw “several bodies lying on the ground outside the hotel reception”. Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist group has been fighting to oust the Somali government for more than 10 years, with the goal of creating a state governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Hayat Hotel is popular with politicians and other government officials. According to Somalia’s state-run National News Agency, police were conducting an operation to stop the attack when it happened. The agency said: “The unsung heroes of the Somali Police Special Unit have rescued many people from the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu as security forces deal with a terrorist incident.” Friday’s attack is the first since Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, took office in May. In August 2020, al Shabaab said it was behind an attack on another hotel in Mogadishu that killed at least 16 people. At least 13 were killed in an attack in Beledweyne in February.
