Militant group says it stormed the Maka al-Mukarama hotel in Mogadishu, leaving seven people dead and government officials trapped inside the building
Somali police officers rush into position outside the Maka al-Mukarama hotel in Mogadishu. Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters
At least seven people have been killed after militants claiming to be from al-Shabaab stormed a hotel in Mogadishu, police say.
Government officials are trapped inside the Maka al-Mukarama hotel in the Somali capital, which officers have surrounded, but they cannot be rescued because of heavy gunfire from inside.
The remains of two destroyed cars lie just outside the gates of the building.
Maj Ismail Olow, a Mogadishu police officer at the scene, told Reuters. “The hotel is now fully under the control of the militants. Al-Shabaab fighters are on the top of the building and inside the hotel. It is not easy for us to go in.”
Al-Shabaab has issued a statement taking responsibility for the attack.
Its military spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters: “We are behind the Maka al-Mukarama hotel attack, and fighting is still going on inside.”
The group was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces in 2011, but has since launched a series of attacks in a bid to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of sharia law on the country.
An offensive launched last year by AU forces and the Somali army drove al-Shabaab out of its strongholds in central and southern Somalia, and a series of US drone strikes have killed some of its top leaders
Al-Shabaab, however, has continued to strike back with often devastating effect using bomb and gun attacks in Mogadishu and other areas. It has also attacked the countries supporting the AU mission.
Source: Reuters
