Attackers who stormed a hotel in Mogadishu killing 23 people and wounding more than 30 on Saturday used identity cards from the country’s intelligence service to gain access to the building. The gunmen then held off security forces for more than 12 hours, and went room to room shooting guests. Sheikh Ali Mohamed, a religious cleric who survived the attack on the hotel saw the attackers kill the woman and children. The attacks come only two weeks after a massive bomb killed more than 350 people in Mogadishu, which has also been blamed on al-Shabaab, and raises serious questions for the Somali security establishment. Ali, the sacked intelligence chief, recently wrote a lengthy article in the New York Times criticising the international community for failing to help Somali security forces.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2017 17:03 UTC