At least
nine people have been killed in an attack on a hotel popular with
government officials in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The
African Union mission to Somalia, AMISOM, confirmed to Al Jazeera that
there had been an explosion followed by gunfire at the Makka al-Mukarama
hotel on Friday.
An AMISOM
spokesman said al-Shabab fighters got out of a car that then exploded.
The armed men then entered the hotel and gunfire was heard. The fighters
took hostages, the spokesman added.
Al-Shabab
claimed responsibility for the attack. The group attacked the same
hotel, popular with government officials and foreigners, in November
2013.
At least
four gunmen trapped an unknown number of people inside the building,
security official Captain Mohamed Hussein told the Associated Press news
agency.
Some
people jumped out of the hotel’s windows, and one who made it safely
outside said the attackers were killing anyone they could find.
Somali
special forces, facing bullets from gunmen holed up inside dark corners
of the hotel, aimed their weapons at the hotel’s windows.
Somalia’s ambassador to Switzerland, Yusuf Mohamed Baribari, was also killed in the attack, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
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