MOGADISHU: Three people were killed in an hours-long siege by Al-Shabab militants at a popular hotel near the presidential palace in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said Friday.
Armed fighters had stormed the SYL hotel in a hail of bullets late on Thursday before security forces announced Friday they had brought the situation under control after more than 13 hours.
“Three people died in the attack and 27 others including 18 civilians and nine soldiers were wounded,” Somali police spokesman Col. Qasim Ahmed Roble told a press conference, adding that the injury toll included three lawmakers.
Security forces also killed five assailants in a gunbattle, he added.
“The situation at the hotel is back to normal now,” Roble said.
The attack on the SYL hotel — which has been targeted several times in the past — occurred at the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
It broke a relative lull in violence by the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group, demonstrating its continued ability to strike despite a major military offensive against the militants.
“Several gunmen forced their way into the building after destroying the perimeter wall with a heavy explosion,” security officer Ahmed Dahir told AFP.
Witnesses described hearing the assailants shoot indiscriminately.
“I don’t know about the casualties but there were many people inside when the attack started,” said Hassan Nur, who escaped by scaling a wall.
Other witnesses said police arrived at the hotel within minutes of the attack, triggering a fierce gunbattle.
Abdullahi Hassan, who was at a nearby house, said the officers arrived in multiple vehicles and that ambulances carried away wounded people.
The same hotel has been hit by Al-Shabab several times, most recently in 2019 when five people were killed.
The SYL is close to the Villa Somalia government complex, a high-security area that includes the presidential palace, the prime minister’s office and ministry buildings.
“It is a highly significant attack that shatters a sense of calm in Mogadishu that has developed in recent months following some security reforms,” said Omar Mahmood, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG), noting that in the past Al-Shabab assaults had increased during Ramadan.
“It also serves as a signal from Al-Shabab that despite much heralded efforts by this government to weaken them, the group remains active and resilient, and even able to hit the government close to home.”
The jihadists have been waging war against the federal government for more than 16 years and have often targeted hotels, which tend to host high-ranking Somali and foreign officials.
Although Al-Shabab was driven out of the capital by an African Union force, it retains a strong presence in rural Somalia and has carried out numerous attacks against political, security and civilian targets.
The beleaguered central government launched a major offensive against the Islamists in August 2022, joining forces with local clan militias.
The army and militias known as “macawisley” have retaken swathes of territory in central Somalia in an operation backed by the AU mission known as ATMIS and US air strikes.
But the offensive has suffered setbacks, with Al-Shabab earlier this week claiming that it had taken control of multiple locations in the center of the country.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met defense officials on Thursday at a “strategic meeting” to establish a plan to reclaim the lost territory, Somali national news agency SONNA reported.
“The president commended the valiant efforts of Somali forces and emphasized the government’s unwavering resolve to eradicate terrorism,” it said.
In January, Al-Shabab took a number of people hostage after a UN helicopter carrying nine passengers made an emergency landing in its territory.
In June last year, six civilians were killed in a six-hour siege at a beachside hotel in Mogadishu.
And in August 2022, 21 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a 30-hour siege on Mogadishu’s Hayat Hotel.
In October 2022, 100 people lost their lives in twin car bombings in Mogadishu, the deadliest strike since Mohamud took office in May of that year.
Thursday’s attack comes days after the US slapped sanctions on 16 individuals and entities across the Horn of Africa and the Middle East that it accused of laundering money for Al-Shabab.
Three killed in Al-Shabab siege at Mogadishu hotel: police
https://arab.news/cpnsx
Three killed in Al-Shabab siege at Mogadishu hotel: police
- Security forces announced Friday they had brought the situation under control after more than 13 hours
- Three people died in the attack and 27 others including 18 civilians and nine soldiers were wounded
Pakistan locks down capital ahead of a planned rally by Imran Khan supporters
- Interior Ministry is considering a suspension of mobile phone services in parts of Pakistan in the coming days
- Pakistan has banned gatherings of five or more people in Islamabad for two months to deter Khan’s supporters
It’s the second time in as many months that authorities have imposed such measures to thwart tens of thousands of people from gathering in the city to demand Khan’s release.
The latest lockdown coincides with the visit of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrives in Islamabad on Monday.
Local media reported that the Interior Ministry is considering a suspension of mobile phone services in parts of Pakistan in the coming days. On Friday, the National Highways and Motorway Police announced that key routes would close for maintenance.
It advised people to avoid unnecessary travel and said the decision was taken following intelligence reports that “angry protesters” are planning to create a law and order situation and damage public and private property on Sunday, the day of the planned rally.
“There are reports that protesters are coming with sticks and slingshots,” the statement added.
Multicolored shipping containers, a familiar sight to people living and working in Islamabad, reappeared on key roads Saturday to throttle traffic.
Pakistan has already banned gatherings of five or more people in Islamabad for two months to deter Khan’s supporters and activists from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI.
Khan has been in prison for more than a year in connection and has over 150 criminal cases against him. But he remains popular and the PTI says the cases are politically motivated.
A three-day shutdown was imposed in Islamabad for a security summit last month.
Indian man awakes on funeral pyre
- Doctors sent Rohitash Kumar, 25, to mortuary instead of conducting postmortem after he fell ill
- Kumar was rushed to hospital on Friday for treatment but was confirmed dead later
JAIPUR: An Indian man awoke on a funeral pyre moments before it was to be set on fire after a doctor skipped a postmortem, medical officials said Saturday.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, who had speaking and hearing difficulties, had fallen sick and was taken to a hospital in Jhunjhunu in the western state of Rajasthan on Thursday.
Indian media reported he had had an epileptic seizure, and a doctor declared him dead on arrival at the hospital.
But instead of the required postmortem to ascertain the cause of death, doctors sent him to the mortuary, and then to be burned according to Hindu rites.
D. Singh, chief medical officer of the hospital, told AFP that a doctor had “prepared the postmortem report without actually doing the postmortem, and the body was then sent for cremation.”
Singh said that “shortly before the pyre was to be lit, Rohitash’s body started movements,” adding that “he was alive and was breathing.”
Kumar was rushed to hospital for a second time, but was confirmed dead on Friday during treatment.
Authorities have suspended the services of three doctors and the police have launched an investigation.
NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump
- NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security
Brussels: NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the “global security issues facing the alliance,” a spokeswoman said Saturday.
The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, NATO’s Farah Dakhlallah said in a statement.
In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defense spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5, and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia.
Trump’s thumping victory to return to the US presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine.
NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte said recently at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest.
“At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea,” which he warned was threatening to the “mainland of the US (and) continental Europe.”
“I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.
Indian man awakes on funeral pyre
JAIPUR, India: An Indian man awoke on a funeral pyre moments before it was to be set on fire after a doctor skipped a postmortem, medical officials said Saturday.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, who had speaking and hearing difficulties, had fallen sick and was taken to a hospital in Jhunjhunu in the western state of Rajasthan on Thursday.
Indian media reported he had had an epileptic seizure, and a doctor declared him dead on arrival at the hospital.
But instead of the required postmortem to ascertain the cause of death, doctors sent him to the mortuary, and then to be burned according to Hindu rites.
D. Singh, chief medical officer of the hospital, told AFP that a doctor had “prepared the postmortem report without actually doing the postmortem, and the body was then sent for cremation.”
Singh said that “shortly before the pyre was to be lit, Rohitash’s body started movements,” adding that “he was alive and was breathing.”
Kumar was rushed to hospital for a second time, but was confirmed dead on Friday during treatment.
Authorities have suspended the services of three doctors and the police have launched an investigation.
Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 33 people
- Senior police officer said Saturday armed men torched shops, houses and government property overnight
- Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram
PESHAWAR: Fighting between armed Sunni and Shiite groups in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 33 people and injured 25 others, a senior police officer from the region said Saturday.
The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people.
Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities.
Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram.
The senior police officer said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property.
Intense gunfire was ongoing between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the Lower Kurram area.
“Educational institutions in Kurram are closed due to the severe tension. Both sides are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons,” said the officer, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Videos shared with The Associated Press showed a market engulfed by fire and orange flames piercing the night sky. Gunfire can also be heard.
The location of Thursday’s attack was also targeted by armed men, who marched on the area.
Survivors of the gun ambush said assailants emerged from a vehicle and sprayed buses and cars with bullets. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack and police have not identified a motive.
Dozens of people from the district’s Sunni and Shiite communities have been killed since July, when a land dispute erupted in Kurram that later turned into general sectarian violence.
