Somali security forces ended a 24-hour siege at a hotel in the central city of Beledweyne after an al-Shabab attack that began with a car bomb, officials said. All six militants identified by the city’s mayor were reported killed, while the number of civilians and other people who died remained uncertain.
The assault began on Tuesday when an explosives-laden vehicle detonated outside the Cairo Hotel, also rendered as Qahira Hotel, before gunmen entered the building. Security forces fought the attackers until Wednesday morning. Images from the aftermath showed heavy damage and smoke around the site.
The hotel accommodated traditional elders and military officers involved in planning the government’s campaign against al-Shabab. Politicians and security officials were also meeting there when the attack began, according to the supplied reporting. A police officer said most people attending the meeting had been rescued, although the number wounded was not clear. Efforts were being made to fly injured people to Mogadishu for treatment.
Beledweyne Mayor Omar Alasow, whose name was rendered as Omar Osman Calasow by the BBC, said six al-Shabab militants died as forces brought the siege to an end. The BBC separately cited a federal lawmaker who estimated that about seven gunmen had attacked, illustrating the uncertainty surrounding even the number of assailants. Officials said some attackers detonated themselves and others were killed by police.
Casualty estimates varied substantially. The mayor told the BBC that seven people had been killed, without the supplied account making clear whether that figure included attackers. One resident told the Associated Press that six people, among them two prominent traditional elders, died. Another witness said three members of his family were among at least 11 people he knew to have been killed. Al-Shabab claimed a toll of 20, but the federal government was still investigating and had not confirmed that assertion.
Because these figures were not reconciled, the evidence did not support the claim that 15 civilians were killed. The most defensible account was that an unknown number of people died in addition to the six attackers reported by the mayor. Those killed were said to include military officers, elders and soldiers.
Al-Shabab, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility. The group opposes Somalia’s federal government, controls territory in rural parts of the country and frequently attacks officials and military targets. Beledweyne, about 335 kilometres north of Mogadishu and the capital of the Hiran region, is strategically important to operations against the organisation. Somali forces and African Union peacekeepers have continued their campaign, but the hotel siege demonstrated the group’s continuing capacity to strike a gathering linked to that offensive.
