At least 16 left dead after Mogadishu hotel siege

MOGADISHU, Somalia－Militants stormed a high-end seaside hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday night, killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens as they detonated a car bomb and then opened fire with assault rifles in the latest attack in the Somali capital.

Somalia's homegrown Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, who are allied to al-Qaida, said they were behind the assault on the Elite Hotel in Lido beach, and that their gunmen battled security forces who rushed to the scene.

At about midnight, state news agency SONNA said the operation was over and that 205 people had been rescued, "including ministers, lawmakers and civilians", citing Farhan Qarole, a security forces commander at the hotel.

"Militants armed with AK-47 ...They were aboard the car bomb, they got off... and the militants went in the hotel to fight," SONNA said.

Government spokesman Ismael Mukhtar Omar said five al-Shabab fighters were also killed by security forces when the attackers stormed the hotel. "The total number of casualties at the Elite Hotel attack is 16.Five of the 16 people killed were the attackers, while one police officer was killed in the rescue operation."

The attack also claimed two senior officials from the ministries of information and defense.

Omar said 18 people had been injured but a medical charity, Aamin Ambulance, had earlier said 28 who were injured during the attack had been rushed to hospitals.

Most of the hostages were young men and women who were dining at the hotel, said Mohamed Hussein, a captain of the security forces.

The hotel is owned by Abdullahi Mohamed Nor, a lawmaker and former finance minister, and is frequented by government officials and members of the Somali diaspora.

"There were officials of (President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo's) government inside the hotel when we attacked," said a statement broadcast on al-Shabab's Radio Andalus.

The attack followed unrest at Mogadishu's central prison on Monday. SONNA said 15 prisoners and four guards were killed when security forces beat back the rebellion.

A witness, Ahmed Ali, said on Sunday that he had heard "a huge blast at the hotel, gunfire followed, and then clouds of smoke".

Aamin ambulance service head Abdikadir Abdirahman had earlier said the service had transported 28 injured people from the scene before exchanges of gunfire started.

Hotel owner Nor posted on Facebook after escaping the building: "May Allah have mercy on all those who died in the attack by the terrorists on civilians particularly on Elite Hotel in which I was in."

Mohamed Nur, a government worker who lives near Lido beach, said the exchange of gunfire was "terrible". "Stray bullets reached us near the beach," he said.

The hotel attack shattered a period of calm that had lasted for a few months. Earlier this year Somalia had a spate of bomb attacks.

The country has been embroiled in violence since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew leader Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

Since 2008, al-Shabab has been fighting to overthrow the internationally-recognized central government and establish its rule based on its own interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Agencies - Xinhua