BBC
Somali security forces have said they rescued 106 people who were trapped inside a hotel that had been stormed by militants on Friday night.
Twenty-one people are confirmed to have died in the 30-hour ordeal, the health ministry said. The fight to retake the hotel ended overnight, officials said.
The assailants used explosives to gain entry to Mogadishu’s Hayat Hotel before violently taking control.
Islamist militant group al-Shabab has taken responsibility for the attack.
“I would like to inform all Somalis that the operation at the hotel was concluded at midnight,” police Commander Abdi Hassan Mohammed Hijra told journalists in a briefing that took place close to the site of the attack.
“It is shocking that innocent people lost their lives here… The security forces were engaged in rescuing the people one by one and in groups.”
The death toll could rise as there is the possibility that family members collected the bodies of relatives before an official count was made, Health Minister Ali Haji Adan said. He added that 117 people were injured, with 15 of them being in a critical condition.
The hotel has been largely destroyed following intense fighting between the militants and security forces throughout Friday night and Saturday, with videos showing explosions and smoke billowing from the building’s rooftop.
“It has been terrible, really terrifying living next door to the gunfire, the explosions. It was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen in Mogadishu,” Abdisalam Guled, a former deputy director of Somalia’s national intelligence agency, told the BBC.
