Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab attack leaves at least 12 dead in Somalia

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 12 people were killed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Sunday, Nov. 1 after Shebab gunmen used a vehicle packed with explosives to blast their way inside a hotel, police said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab claimed responsibility for the dawn attack at the Sahafi hotel, which is popular with members of parliament, government employees and businessmen.

After the car bomb ripped a hole in the hotel's fortified walls, gunmen stormed the building firing semi-automatic rifles and throwing grenades, witnesses said.

"This is the action of an increasingly desperate, internally-divided group of extremists," Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a statement, after security forces overpowered the attackers in a gunbattle.

"Our security forces have full control of the situation," he added.

Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency declared the attack over several hours after the shooting began, although special forces appeared to be carrying out mopping-up operations for some time afterwards.

"Attackers exploded a car bomb to gain entry before going inside... we have reports of 12 dead," policeman Abdulrahid Dahir said.

The African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a 22,000-strong force fighting the Shebab, strongly condemned the "heinous terrorist attack" and said it had helped government troops repel the assault and secure the hotel.

Among the fatalities was a Somali freelance journalist, the Somali Association of Journalists said, adding that a photographer with the Reuters news agency had been slightly hurt.

The pair were hit when they arrived at the hotel to report on the first explosion. It was then that the second car bomb detonated.

A former senior army commander was also among the dead.

The UN envoy to Somalia, Nick Kay, also condemned the "bloody attack", which he said underlined the need to help support Somalia's security forces in stopping such assaults.

The European Union in a statement called the bloodshed "an act of terrorism by those who want to undermine progress towards a stable and secure Somalia".