In Mogadishu, Somalia, gunmen from the al-Shabaab terrorist group have attacked Hotel Hyatt. News agency ANI quoted Reuters as saying that nine injured were taken to the hospital from the Hyatt Hotel. Two security officers were also injured in the attack and some people were reported to be killed.
According to media reports, the attack took place at the Hyatt Hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Security sources and eyewitnesses said al-Shabaab fighters on Friday attacked the Hyatt Hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu in a hail of gunfire and explosions, with some reported casualties. Al-Shabaab fighters affiliated with al-Qaeda forcibly entered the hotel and randomly opened fire among people.
Security officer Abduqadir Hassan told AFP news agency that a fierce encounter between security forces and fighters of the jihadist group has started after the attack on the Hyatt Hotel. The terrorists are still hiding inside the building. “There was a huge explosion a few minutes before the gunmen entered the hotel,” Hassan said. He said that “we do not have the details of the casualties yet, but there have been some casualties, and the security forces are now dealing with those who are hiding inside the building.”
Two security officers including intelligence chief injured:
Police Major Hassan Dahir told the media that an encounter was going on between the gunmen and Somalia security forces at the hotel. Dahir said two security officials, including Mogadishu’s intelligence chief Muhyiddin Mohamed, were injured in the encounter. However, due to the ongoing siege of the hotel, the full details could not be clarified.
Witnesses said a second explosion occurred outside the hotel minutes after the first, in which members of the rescue team and members of the security forces who arrived at the scene after the first explosion, and civilians were injured. “The area has now been cordoned off and an encounter is going on between the security forces and the gunmen,” an eyewitness said.
Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group Al-Shabaab, which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s weak government for more than a decade, has claimed responsibility for the attack. “A group of al-Shabaab attackers forcibly broke into the Hotel Hyatt in Mogadishu, with fighters opening random shots inside the hotel,” the terrorist group Shabaab said in a brief statement on its supporter website.
Al-Shabaab has become another name for ‘fear’ in Somalia?
Al-Shabaab is one of the factions of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in different parts of the world. Based primarily in Somalia, the full name of this organization is Harkat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen and it has a strong presence in the country’s southern border with Kenya. Al-Shabaab’s sole aim is to overthrow the Somali government. Al-Shabaab follows Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi Islam, which is the most radical form of Islam.
This is not the first attack of this terrorist organization which has been fighting a long war against the Somalia government. Al Shabaab has carried out several horrific explosions in the city of Mogadishu in the past. The terrorist organization Al-Shabaab was founded in 2006. At that time the city of Mogadishu was under the control of the Union of Islamic Courts, an organization of Sharia courts. Its head was Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The organization was defeated by the Ethiopian army in 2006 and al-Shabaab was born. Al-Shabaab is a radical branch of the Union of Islamic Courts.
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source https://spotlight7.com/world/somalia-hyatt-hotel-in-mogadishu-attacked-by-terrorist-group-al-shabaab-2-security-officials-injured/
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