MOGADISHU: Security forces have ended a siege by Al-Qaeda-linked militants at a hotel in Somalia’s capital in which more than 20 people were killed and dozens injured, authorities said on Sunday.
Dozens of people who had been taken hostage in the stand-off at the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu were freed.
Elite armed forces battled the militants for 30 hours from Friday evening after the attackers blasted and shot their way into the hotel, which is popular with lawmakers and other government officials.
“We have confirmed so far 21 dead people and 117 others injured,” Ali Hajji, the minister for health, told national broadcaster SNTV.
“It is possible there were corpses that were not taken to hospitals but buried by relatives. The death toll and the casualties are based on the figure taken to hospitals,” the minister added.
Three attackers were shot dead during the military operation to end the siege, said Hassan, a police captain who only gave one name.
A fourth one was shot dead in the area on Sunday morning as he attempted to melt into the civilian population, Hassan said, adding that the exact number of attackers was still unclear.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group, which has been fighting to topple the government in the Horn of Africa country for more than a decade, claimed responsibility for the attack.
It wants to establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Friday’s attack at the Hayat was the first major incident since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took office in May.
The attackers shot and killed civilians who fled toward the wall of the hotel compound and its blown-up gate after they struck, said a police captain who gave only the name Ahmed, adding that they killed 10 security personnel with firearms and grenades.
Aden Ali, a survivor, told Reuters that he was drinking a cup of tea at the hotel when he heard the first blast. He ran toward the compound wall with others as the militants fired at them.
“We were many on the run, over a dozen. When I went out of the hotel, I could see eight of us. Maybe the rest died in the shooting,” Ali said.
Another group of people in the hotel fled to an upper floor, where they were killed by the militants who first blew up the stairs to prevent escape, Ali said.
Security forces managed to free some of those who locked themselves in their rooms in the upper floors after several hours, he said.
Some 106 people were freed, including women and children, a senior police commander said.
Residents were milling around the bombed out hotel on Sunday. The building was extensively damaged.
“We are still investigating the explosions of many plastic bags that have been scattered around the hotel,” said Mohamed Ali, a military officer at the scene.
At least 21 killed in Somalia hotel siege, many hostages freed
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At least 21 killed in Somalia hotel siege, many hostages freed
- Elite armed forces battled the militants for 30 hours from Friday evening after the attackers blasted and shot their way into the hotel
- Three attackers were shot dead during the military operation to end the siege
Malaysia to resume search for missing Flight MH370
- Flight MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
One killed as Russian missile strikes hit Ukraine capital
- Authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson
- Moscow’s forces are advancing in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia
KYIV: One person was reported killed on Friday in a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where AFP staff saw smoke rise over parts of the city after a series of explosions.
“According to preliminary reports, one person was killed,” the head of the city’s military administration, Sergiy Popko, said on Telegram.
Popko said Russian forces had used Kinzhal and Iskander missiles in the strike at around 7:00 am (0500 GMT).
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that, “as a result of the enemy attack,” two people were hospitalized and debris fell in four areas, setting cars and buildings alight.
“Emergency services are working everywhere,” he said on Telegram.
The blasts came after the Ukrainian air force warned of an impending ballistic missile attack.
“Ballistic missile from the north!” the air force said on Telegram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference on Thursday suggested a “hi-tech duel” over Kyiv to test his claims that Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik, is impervious to air defenses.
Ukrainian authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson, where one person was killed and six injured, as well as several other Ukrainian cities and towns.
‘You always feel vulnerable’: Britons impacted by no-fault evictions
- This so-called no-fault eviction is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill
- Campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law
LEWES, United Kingdom: Sitting by the fireplace in her house in the south of England, Jackie Bennett recalls the shock she felt when she received out-of-the-blue an eviction notice giving her just two months to move out.
This so-called no-fault eviction, which sees Bennett kicked out of her home without cause, is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill.
But campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law.
“I’ve canceled some of my work. I’ve canceled my Christmas plans and my holiday plans,” the 55-year-old artist explained, as she pushed back tears.
Hanging across her apartment are colorful crocheted tapestries that mask the damp that covers the walls of her house in Lewes, southern England.
Her landlord explained to her by email that she wanted to sell the property after Bennet had already received the eviction notice.
As a tenant, “you always feel vulnerable,” she said.
No-fault evictions were introduced in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher’s government as part of a push to deregulate the rental market to attract more private landlords.
Under the new Renters’ Rights Bill, currently under consideration by the Labour majority parliament, landlords will have to provide a reason in advance for evicting tenants, such as to reclaim the property to move into or unpaid rent.
The bill would give tenants a longer notice period in the event of an eviction, giving them more time to plan their next housing arrangement.
It marks an important step in protecting tenants against being evicted after they make reasonable complaints to landlords, said Ben Twomey, chief executive of tenants rights organization Generation Rent.
These instances, termed “revenge evictions” by campaigners, are a “massive problem” in England, he added.
While he supports the reforms, Twomey warned that in the absence of a rental price caps, tenants could still be evicted “through the back door” by landlords hiking rents to unreasonable levels.
Rents have already jumped over nine percent in the past year in the UK, according to official data.
Between July and September this year, 8,425 households in England where taken to court over no-fault eviction notices, the highest number in eight years, said Twomey, citing Ministry of Justice figures.
As the bill comes closer to being passed into law, more landlords have been ramping up the use of no-fault evictions, according to Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, a company that helps landlords repossess properties.
“That will increase until the ban date comes in, because landlords are worried about how will they get their property back,” he added.
Alexandra Casson, who works in television production in London, was also served one of these eviction notices after she refused her landlord’s attempt to raise the rent by over 50 percent.
She denounced it as “an absolute brazen attempt to extort tenants.”
“They forget that there are humans that live in the property assets that they shuffle around,” said the 43-year-old, based in East London’s popular Dalston neighborhood.
Casson, a member of the London Renters Union, welcomed a measure in the new bill that would extend the notice period to vacate a property from two months to four months.
Although, she predicts that it’ll take her around six months to finalize purchasing a new property, and even then, she considers herself one of the lucky ones.
Sri Lanka navy rescues boat of 100 Rohingya refugees
- The group, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy said Friday it had rescued 102 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar adrift in a fishing trawler off the Indian Ocean island nation, bringing them safely to port.
The group, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee, a navy spokesman said, adding that food and water had been provided.
“Medical checks have to be done before they are allowed to disembark,” the spokesman said.
The mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on long sea journeys, the majority heading southeast to Malaysia or Indonesia.
But fisherman spotted the drifting trawler off Sri Lanka’s northern coast at Mullivaikkal at dawn on Thursday.
While unusual, it is not the first boat to head to Sri Lanka — about 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) across open seas southwest of Myanmar.
The Sri Lankan navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress on a boat off their shores in December 2022.
The navy spokesman said Friday that language difficulties had made it hard to understand where the refugees had been intending to reach, suggesting that “recent cyclonic weather” may have pushed them off course.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.
Myanmar’s military seized power in a 2021 coup and a grinding war since then has forced millions to flee.
Last month, the UN warned Myanmar’s Rakhine state — the historic homeland of many Rohingya — was heading toward famine, as brutal clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.
Australia announces $118 million deal to enhance policing in Solomon Islands
- Australia has been energetically pursuing new bilateral security deals with its Pacific island neighbors
- Beijing and the Solomons signed a security deal in 2022 under prime minister’s Jeremiah Manele’s predecessor
MELBOURNE: Australia announced on Friday it will pay for more police in Solomon Islands and create a police training center in the South Pacific island nation’s capital Honiara, where Chinese law enforcement instructors are already based under a bilateral security pact with Beijing.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would spend $118 million (190 million Australian dollars) over four years on funding and training new Royal Solomon Islands Police Force recruits with a package that would “reduce any need for outside support.”
“My government is proud to make a significant investment in the police force of the Solomon Islands to ensure that they can continue to take primary responsibility for security in the Solomons,” Albanese told reporters in Australia’s capital Canberra.
Albanese and his Solomons counterpart Jeremiah Manele said in a joint statement on Friday the package would build an enduring security capability in the Solomons, “thereby reducing its reliance on external partners over time.”
Australia has been energetically pursuing new bilateral security deals with its Pacific island neighbors since Beijing and the Solomons signed a security deal in 2022 under Manele’s predecessor, Manasseh Sogavare.
That deal has created fears among US allies including Australia that the Chinese navy will be allowed to build a base in the strategically important Solomons.
Albanese’s Labour Party, which was the opposition at the time the pact was signed, described it as Australia’s worst foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II.
Australia has recently signed security deals with Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Nauru that effectively give Canberra veto powers over any security deals those countries might want to strike with third nations including China.
Asked if the new deal would require the Chinese security presence to be removed from the Solomons, Albanese did not directly answer.
“The Solomon Islands of course is a sovereign nation. They have some measures in place and we expect that to continue,” Albanese said.
“As a result of this agreement, what we’ve done is make sure that Australia remains the security partner of choice,” he added.
Mihai Sora, a Pacific islands expert at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, said the agreement was a “clear win for Solomon Islands, which has gained a much-needed boost to its law and justice sector.”
“But Solomon Islands has not committed to scaling back the essentially permanent rotating presence of around 14 Chinese police trainers in the country, who have been running their own parallel training program with Solomon Islands police since 2022,” Sora said in an email.
“So, the agreement falls short of a solid strategic commitment to Australia from Solomon Islands, and there’s no indication that it would derail China-Solomon Islands security ties,” Sora added.
Blake Johnson, an analyst at the Australian Security Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, said Chinese policing in the Pacific gives Beijing tools to control Chinese expatriates and pursue other goals.
“They can be very heavy-handed in their response sometimes. There are also concerns around data and privacy risks associated with Chinese police in the region,” Johnson said.
“Sometimes they’re providing surveillance equipment. There are concerns about what that is being used for and what it’s capturing,” he added.
