Al-Shabab assaulted the popular location close to the presidential palace and held a siege during the previous night. On Monday, Somalia’s security forces engaged in gunfire with terrorists holed up in a hotel in Mogadishu.
After daybreak, sporadic gunfire and explosions could still be heard near the Villa Rose, a hotel in a safe area of Mogadishu that is popular with politicians and government officials.
Police reported late Sunday that after bombarding the Villa Rose with gunfire and explosions, government forces were attempting to “eliminate” a number of armed militants inside.
Sadik Dudishe, a spokesman for the national police, said that numerous citizens and government workers had been saved but provided no other information.
Two enormous explosions were reported by witnesses, followed by gunfire that caused residents of Bondhere district to escape the area. The hotel is only a few blocks away from Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s office in Somalia.
Al-Shabab, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group that has spent the last 15 years attempting to topple Somalia’s government, claimed responsibility for the assault.
In a statement released late on Sunday, the 20,000-strong African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), applauded the “swift” security response to the attack.
The Villa Rose advertises itself as the “most secure lodging arrangement in Mogadishu” on its website, complete with metal detectors and a tall encircling wall.
As Somalia’s newly elected government has pursued a policy of “all-out war” against the Islamists, Al-Shabab has increased attacks against civilian and military targets.
Al-Shabab has been expelled from the country’s heartland regions in recent months by the state forces, assisted by local militias, ATMIS, and US airstrikes, but the offensive has sparked retaliation.
On October 29, gunshots and two explosions using explosive-packed cars took place in Mogadishu, killing at least 121 people and injured 333 more.
It was the nation’s most vulnerable attack in five years and the worst.
In an August siege that lasted 30 hours before security forces could retake control from the militants inside a hotel in Mogadishu, at least 21 people were killed.
Earlier this month, the UN reported that violence in Somalia had resulted in at least 613 civilian deaths and 948 injuries, primarily from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attributed to Al-Shabab.
The results increased by more than 30% over the previous year and were the highest since 2017.
