Gunfire and explosions were heard Friday after Jihadist organization members gained control of a hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group with ties to Al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the attack. For about 15 years, the organization has waged a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s precarious central government.
A group of Al-Shabaab gunmen allegedly forced their way into Hotel Hayat in Mogadishu and are now firing randomly within the building, according to a statement on a pro-Shabaab website.
Abdukadir Hassan, a security officer, told AFP that the attack on the Hayat Hotel resulted in a shootout between security personnel and Islamist terrorists who are still holed up within the structure.
A huge explosion occurred just before the shooters broke into the hotel, according to Hassan.
The security forces are currently engaged with the adversary who is holed up inside the structure, he continued, adding that “we don’t have the details at this time but there are casualties.”
Three people were hurt in the attack, according to ambulance workers, but two more people were hurt, according to witnesses at the KM4 crossing.
Nine people have been injured, according to a Reuters story that quotes Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director and founder of Mogadishu’s Aamin ambulance services.
According to Somali police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan, a suicide bomber who attacked the hotel alongside many other shooters caused the initial explosion.
According to him, the police are “currently engaging the attackers, and they will be neutralized very soon.”
Witnesses claim that after the initial explosion, there was a second device outside the hotel that injured first responders, security guards, and onlookers who had rushed to the scene.
