Three soldiers were killed and 27 others wounded in an attack on a hotel in Somalia’s capital, police said, in the latest episode to highlight the Shebab rebels’ ability to strike.

Security services were earlier seen deployed around the Syl Hotel, frequented by government officials and parliamentarians, after the attack which took place late Thursday night and was claimed by al Qaeda-linked militants.

“Three soldiers were killed. Eighteen civilians and nine soldiers were injured in the attack on the hotel,” police spokesman Qasim Ahmed Robol told a press conference. “All five terrorists were shot and killed and their bodies recovered.”

The Shebaab group has waged a fierce insurgency against Somalia’s federal government since 2006 in an attempt to establish its own rule based on its own interpretation of Islamic law (sharia).

In yesterday’s attack, residents heard an explosion followed by gunfire as the attackers entered the hotel, they told Reuters.

A second explosion followed several minutes later, a Reuters reporter and resident said.

Although driven out of several areas by government-backed forces since the mid-2010s, the group still controls vast areas in southern and central Somalia and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and military targets.

In June, Shebab militants killed nine people at the Pearl restaurant in the capital. In 2019, its militants attacked the Syl Hotel.

File photo