Mogadishu, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – twenty third Oct, 2022 ) :At least three individuals have been killed in an ongoing assault on a lodge in Kismayo, southern Somalia, claimed by Al-Shabaab Islamists, police and a witness stated on Sunday.
The assault started at 12:45 pm (0945 GMT) when a booby-trapped automotive rammed the lodge entrance.
“Terrorist attackers stormed Hotel Tawakal this afternoon and there is ongoing fighting inside the building now between the security forces and the terrorists,” police officer Abdullahi Ismail instructed AFP.
“There are fatalities and three civilians were confirmed dead but it is very difficult to say the exact number of the casualties now.” “This is not a government target,” he added. “It is just an ordinary, civilian-frequented hotel.” Al-Shabaab, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, stated members of the Federal authorities of Jubaland, the place Kismayo is positioned, had been assembly within the lodge on the time.
Witness Farhan Hassan, who was outdoors the lodge when the assault occurred, instructed AFP he had seen “the dead bodies of three people recovered near the main entrance”.
“A suicide bomber drove a vehicle into the entrance of the hotel before the gunmen entered the building,” he stated.
“Shooting started inside and it looks (like) the gunmen were randomly shooting people inside.
” Hassan stated gunfire might nonetheless be heard contained in the lodge.
“We don’t know the number of those who may have been killed inside,” he stated.
Somalia, a desperately poor nation within the Horn of Africa, has confronted extreme instability for many years.
Al-Shabaab has been combating the internationally recognised authorities since 2007 and civilians are sometimes caught within the crossfire.
The group has been ousted from Somalia’s main cities — together with from the capital Mogadishu in 2011 — however nonetheless controls swathes of the countryside and has stepped up assaults in latest months.
In August it launched a 30-hour gun and bomb assault on the favored Hayat lodge in Mogadishu, killing 21 individuals and wounding 117.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected in May, vowed after the siege to wage “all-out war” on the Islamists.
In addition to the violence, the United Nations has warned that individuals in components of Somalia are on the point of famine.
The Horn of Africa is within the grip of the worst drought in additional than 40 years, following 4 failed wet seasons which have worn out livestock and crops.
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