Sunday November 27, 2022
Mogadishu (HOL) - Al Shabaab gunmen launched an attack on a hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday that is popular with government officials.
Al Shabaab fighters began the attack with an explosion at the gates of Villa Rosa Hotel, a heavily fortified hotel close to Somalia's Presidential Palace and Godka Jilicow prison.
Eyewitnesses told Hiiraan that elite government forces had arrived on the scene and were actively fighting the militants inside the hotel.
A Somali Police spokesman said that it was not immediately clear how many Al Shabaab fighters were involved in the attack.
The state minister for the environment, Adam Aw Hirsi, wrote on Twitter that he was safe after a "terrorist explosion targeted at my residence" at the hotel.
There are unconfirmed reports that the federal Minister of Security, Dr. Mohamed Sheikh (Dodishe), was wounded in the attack.
The hotel is home to several Somali government officials and is regularly used as a meeting place and office.
The militant insurgency group Al-Shabaab claimed the attack through their media affiliates, who claimed to be targeting Villa Somalia.
This story is developing.