Al-Shabaab Militants Attack Hotel in Somalia's Capital

Defense News ,Somalia :-  Islamist militants attacked a well-known hotel near the president's home in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday night. Security sources and people who saw it happen said it was the Al-Shabaab group.

The attack began around 9:45 pm with gunmen shooting at the SYL hotel. They forced their way in by blowing up part of the wall. A security officer named Ahmed Dahir said this.

We don't know yet if anyone got hurt. People who were there said they heard the attackers shooting without aiming at anyone in particular.

Hassan Nur, who managed to get away by climbing over a wall, said, "I'm not sure if anyone got hurt, but there were lots of people inside when it started."

Other people said the police arrived quickly after the attack began, and there was a big gunfight.

Abdullahi Hassan, who was nearby, said he saw the police come in many vehicles. "Two ambulances took away injured people," he said.

The Al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab has been fighting against the government in Somalia for more than 16 years. They often attack hotels where important Somali and foreign people stay.

This attack happened just days after the US Treasury put sanctions on 16 individuals and groups in East Africa and the Middle East. They said these people and groups were helping Al-Shabaab move money around.

The US said one of the groups was a company in Dubai called Haleel Commodities LLC. It has branches in Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and Cyprus. Another group was a company in the UAE called Qemat Al Najah General Trading, and a bus company in Kenya also got sanctions because they were helping Al-Shabaab.

Even though African Union soldiers pushed Al-Shabaab out of the capital, they still have a lot of power in rural parts of Somalia. They often attack political and civilian targets in Mogadishu.

The Somali government has been fighting against Al-Shabaab since August 2022, along with local militias. The army and these militias have taken back some areas in the center of the country with help from African Union soldiers and US airstrikes.

But the fighting has been tough, and the government is trying to plan how to take back the areas they lost. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had a meeting with defense officials on Thursday to talk about this.

"The president praised the brave efforts of Somali forces and said the government is determined to stop terrorism," a Somali news agency said.

In January, Al-Shabaab took some people hostage after a UN helicopter with nine passengers made an emergency landing in their area.