The Mogadishu hotel siege that began on Sunday evening ended after all six attackers were killed, media report, citing a Somali police spokesperson. The venue targeted by jihadist intruders is popular among government officials.
"The operation at the hotel Rosa has been concluded," he said, adding that "the […] terrorists killed nine people, including a soldier," and noting that "one [attacker] blew himself up and five were shot dead by the security forces."
According to the official, around 60 people were trapped in the Villa Rosa hotel during the incident, which lasted over 18 hours; all of them were freed uninjured. The site of the terror attack is located just a few blocks from the Somali presidential residence.
The Jihadist movement al-Shabaab* claimed responsibility for the attack. For some 15 years the group, affiliated with Al-Qaeda*, has been striving to overthrow the Somali government in order to establish an Islamist regime in the country.
Nowadays, al-Shabaab controls several rural regions of Somalia. In the summer of 2022, the country's newly-elected government declared an "all-out war" against the extremist organization that is responsible for multiple terrorist acts in recent years, in Somalia as well as abroad.
Since the beginning of the large-scale operation against Al-Shabaab, the terrorists have intensified their attacks. On October 29, two car bombs blew up in Mogadishu followed by gunfire, killing at least 121 people and injuring 333 in the deadliest terrorist attack in the Horn of Africa in the last five years.
In late August, a 30-hour siege at the Hayat Hotel in Somalia's capital left at least 21 victims dead.
*terrorist organizations banned in Russia and other nations