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                Death Toll Rises to 24 in Mogadishu Hotel Attack

   by Abdulaziz Osman

   Somali officials say security forces have killed the gunmen who
   attacked a popular Mogadishu hotel, bringing the death toll from the
   assault to 24.

   Security Minister Abdirisak Omar Mohamed tells VOA's Somali Service
   that security forces killed the three gunmen during a shootout in the
   Ambassador Hotel Thursday morning, and rescued 57 hostages the
   attackers had held overnight.

   The attack began late Wednesday afternoon with a car bomb blast outside
   the hotel that killed a fourth attacker.  Afterward, gunmen went floor
   to floor in the hotel, opening fire on hotel guests.

   Omar says at least 17 people -- 12 civilians, three security guards and
   two members of parliament - were killed in or around the hotel. The
   director of Mogadishu's Madina Hospital said three other shooting
   victims brought to the hospital died of their wounds.

   ''

   The Somali militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the
   attack, saying it targeted the hotel because it is used by Somali
   government officials.  The hotel sits on the city's strategic
   Maka-al-Mukarama road, near the presidential palace.

   Al-Shabab has carried out similar assaults on hotels in the past.  An
   attack on the Sahafi Hotel last November killed at least 12 people,
   while an attack on the Maka-al-Mukarama Hotel in March 2015 killed at
   least 20.

   Al-Shabab commander killed
   Wednesday's attack came just hours after Somali officials announced a
   top al-Shabab commander had been killed in southern Somalia.  Mohamed
   Mohamud, better known as Dulyadeyn, allegedly masterminded the April
   2015 attack on Kenya's Garissa University College that left 148 people
   dead, nearly all of them students.

   There are conflicting reports on the circumstances of his death.  A
   senior Somali official said U.S. helicopters fired missiles into a car
   in which Dulyadeyn and two others were traveling.

   But, a security minister in the Jubba region, Abdurashid Janan, told
   VOA's Somali Service that the militant was killed by a U.S.-trained
   Somali commando unit.  U.S. officials have yet to comment on the
   attack.

   The Pentagon Wednesday reported a separate airstrike in south-central
   Somalia on May 27 that targeted Abdullahi Haji Daud, a senior al-Shabab
   military commander and attack planner.  Pentagon Press Secretary Peter
   Cook said the U.S. is still assessing the results of that attack.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/somalia-al-shahab-hotel-attack/3358760.html