Armed attackers stormed a hotel near the presidential palace in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least ten people. Among them were two people with dual Somali-British citizenship, said Mohamed Dahir of the Somali police German press agency. The siege of the hotel was still ongoing late Sunday evening.
Somali Security Minister Ahmed Mohamed Doodishe was reportedly among the injured. The hotel is popular with politicians. It is not known how many other people have been injured so far.
The terrorist militia al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, spoke of fighting inside the hotel in its propaganda radio program.
Two days ago, 100 al-Shabaab members were killed
The attack in Mogadishu came two days after a large-scale military operation by Somali government forces in central Somalia that killed 100 al-Shabaab members, government sources said.
Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa with around 16 million inhabitants, has been rocked by attacks and violence for years. The government in Mogadishu has been conducting a military offensive against Al-Shabaab for several months.