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Mogadishu / AFP
An attack on a Mogadishu hotel by extremist gunmen has ended with at least 10 dead, Somalia’s security minister said on Thursday.
Somali security forces had been battling the Shabaab fighters holed up inside the building since Wednesday evening when the assault began with a car bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel. “All the gunmen were killed by the security forces,†said security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed.
“More than 10 people are so far confirmed dead and many others are wounded,†he told reporters, adding that rescuers were searching the damaged building for survivors and dead bodies.
The bodies of three suspected attackers were displayed in the dirt outside the hotel.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) which protects the government and fights the Shabaab said two parliamentarians were among the dead. The attack began on Wednesday evening with a large car bomb followed by Shabaab fighters storming the upmarket hotel.