In Somalia, an al-Shabaab attack on a hotel in Mogadishu killed at least three people and wounded twenty-seven others.

Three people were killed and twenty-seven wounded in a thirteen-hour attack by Shabaab militants on a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a police spokesman announced on Friday March 15. Eighteen civilians, including three members of parliament, were among the injured, Somali police spokesman Colonel Kassim Ahmed Roble said during a midday press conference.

According to testimonies collected by Agence France-Presse (AFP), an armed commando entered the SYL Hotel at around 9:45pm (7:45pm in Paris) on Thursday, after damaging the wall around it with explosives.
The attack, carried out by five fighters from an al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group, ended after thirteen hours on Friday morning.

The police clarified that in the morning “All the armed terrorists have been killed and the situation [était] Normalcy returned and security forces continued[a]No to Restrictions and Inquiries”, By the voice of Officer Abdirahim Yusuf. An AFP reporter noted that prior to the police report, explosions and sporadic gunshots were heard at the hotel.

Many bloody attacks

The hotel is located near the highly secure Villa Somalia compound, a fortified compound that houses the offices of the Somali President and Prime Minister. SYL is a recurring target of al-Shabaab: Thursday's attack was the fifth since at least 2015. In the most recent, in December 2019, five people died (three civilians, two members of the security forces).

Al-Shabaab has been fighting the Somali Federal Government for more than sixteen years with the support of the international community. The al-Qaeda-linked rebels controlled the capital until 2011, when they were driven out by African Union troops. Nevertheless, Sabah is entrenched in vast rural areas in the country's center and south, from where they regularly launch attacks against security, political and civilian targets.

With their bloody attacks, they show their ability to strike at the heart of cities and military installations in the Horn of Africa nation of 17 million people. In fact, the hotel has already been targeted several times by al-Shabaab since 2015. During the latest attack, in December 2019, five people, three civilians and two security forces, were killed.

On Thursday, Somali President A “Strategic Meeting” National news agency Sonna reported that they are planning to recapture the lost territories in collaboration with security officials. The government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched a wide-scale offensive in August 2023, backed by the US military and the African Union Force in the country (Atmis), which is currently on hold after allowing the recapture of areas in central Somalia. .

In August 2020, Sabah launched a major attack against another hotel, the Elite, on Lido Beach, killing ten civilians and a police officer. It took four hours for security forces to regain control of the establishment. In June 2023, a Sabah commando attack on a hotel in Mogadishu killed six civilians and three police officers. They have been considered a terrorist group by Washington since 2008.