MOGADISHU (KAAB TV) – At least 31 people were killed and 46 others were injured in a 17-hour hotel siege carried out by the Al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday night, March 14th.
storming the heavily fortified SYL Hotel, located in the vicinity of the Somali presidential palace.
The police reported that at least five attackers were killed, all of whom were wearing civilian clothes. Photos shared on social media show the bloodied bodies scattered on the hotel premises.
However, security sources and journalists suggest that the number of attackers may be higher.
The U.S.-trained counter-terror unit known as Gaashaan was dispatched to the hotel at 3 p.m. on Friday to neutralize the attackers, making the hotel siege one of the longest in recent years.
How did Al-Shabaab attackers + a suicide car bomb manage to strike the SYL Hotel, which locates deep the heavily fortified zone of the presidential palace in #Mogadishu, is a question that nobody wants to answer!
Even, Somali police spokesman Qasim Roble did not respond it.… pic.twitter.com/rneKEp6myv
— Kaab Somali TV (@KaabTV) March 15, 2024
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that they targeted the hotel because it harbored members of Somali security agencies and government officials.
Among those injured are government spokesperson Farhan Jimale, Turkish-trained special police commander Col. Abdihamid Abdullahi, also known as Fanah, Banadir Regional Administration secretary Feysal Arale, and several district-level officials.
Additionally, six lawmakers of the Somali Federal Parliament and a local journalist were injured in the attack.
On Saturday, members of the public raised questions about how the attackers managed to reach the SYL Hotel within the heavily guarded presidential palace. It was just after reports emerged showing that the attackers went through the Sayidka Junction, one of the key security checkpoints manned by the presidential guards and the officers of the national intelligence (NISA).
It had emerged that some of the attackers had government-issued security personnel ID cards.
CCTV installed on the main roads showed the moment the suicide car bomb passed through the checkpoints with ease.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre visited the injured government officials but refrained from commenting on the attack, particularly regarding calls for an investigation into the plotters.
Reports indicated that the president went to the CCTV monitoring room inside the NISA headquarters in Mogadishu, apparently angered by the attack.
The Somali security forces, divided along clan lines, suffer from rampant corruption and low morale due to inadequate pay.
The siege of the SYL Hotel marks one of the seven major attacks in the capital carried out by Al-Shabaab since President Hassan Sheikh came to power in May 2022.