Nine civilians killed in militant siege at a Mogadishu hotel

[Deeq A.]

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A protracted assault by Al Shabab militants on a Mogadishu hotel frequented by government ministers ended with at least nine civilians, including one police officer dead, the Somali police said Monday — the latest bloody attack by the militants in the center of the capital.

The six attackers were also killed, but the 22-hour siege, which took place a few streets away from the president’s office in downtown Mogadishu, offered fresh evidence that the militants can strike Somalia’s political elite even in places where they are most closely guarded.

The assault began Sunday evening when six fighters from Al Shabab, an extremist militant group that swears allegiance to Al Qaeda, stormed the Villa Rosa hotel after evening prayers. At least one assailant detonated a suicide vest while others opened fire with guns on the guests, witnesses said.  

At least three government ministers were present, including the internal security minister, Mohamed Ahmed Sheik Ali, who was injured after he leaped from a window to escape the assault, according to local news reports.

Somali troops from a C.I.A.-trained paramilitary unit known as Gaashaan and a Turkish-trained unit known as Haramad led efforts to flush the militants from the besieged hotel, an  effort that continued into Monday, when bursts of gunfire and the sounds of explosions rang out across the city.

The siege ended after the six attackers had been killed, a police spokesman, Sadik Duudishe,  told reporters in brief remarks, adding that the security forces had rescued at least 60 people, including the country’s fisheries minister.

Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in posts on social media on Monday, posting updates through the day to stress that the assault was continuing.

The militants have escalated their bombing campaign in Mogadishu in recent months, in response to a military offensive by Somali forces and pro-government militias in rural areas previously dominated by the militants in central Somalia.    Hotels popular with government officials are frequently targeted.

At least 21 people were killed and more than 100 wounded during a 30-hour siege on the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu in August — the largest such assault since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected in May.  

That siege was followed by Al Shabab’s deadliest attack in five years, on Oct. 29, when two car bombs killed at least 100 people and wounded more than 300 outside the Ministry of Education.

As fighting raged inside the Villa Rosa hotel on Monday, the surrounding area was sealed off and the police declined to release any information about casualties until late in the day. But several Somalis wrote on Facebook that family members had been killed and one government minister described his narrow escape.

Adam Aw Hirsi, the state minister for the environment, said in an interview that he escaped the hotel through a back door when gunfire and explosions rang out at 7.30 p.m. on Sunday.  

“There was a massive deafening explosion that shook the foundation of the building, shattering glass windows, right after we left the evening congregational prayers,” he said in a text message.

Mr. Hirsi said he and several others were ushered through the rear of the hotel into an adjacent graveyard, from where they were able to reach safety. Mr. Hirsi, who is from Gedo, 230 miles to the northwest, said he had lived in the hotel since 2020.

“I know where the back exits were, and I used one of them,” he said.

Other government officials were rescued after escaping through windows, including the minister of fisheries, Ahmed Hassan Aden, and a senator, Dunia Mohamed, the police said.

In a sign of how militant chaos has become normalized in Mogadishu, a graduation ceremony for a private university went ahead on Monday at the National Theater, near the besieged hotel.

On Friday, Shabab militants attacked a military base in the village of Qayib, in the central Galgaduud region, a government minister told reporters, prompting violent clashes as the army tried to repel them.

Hussein Mohamed reported from Mogadishu, and Declan Walsh from Nairobi, Kenya.

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