Somali forces kill 50 militants in airstrikes following hotel siege resolution
Security forces in Somalia reported that they killed all six attackers who laid siege to a hotel in the central town of Beledweyne. Additionally, they later killed at least 50 al-Shabab militants in airstrikes.
Speaking to reporters, Beledweyne District Commissioner Omar Osman Alasow confirmed that the hotel siege ended early Wednesday, News.Az reports citing Voice of America.
“Our security forces successfully got rid of six militants who attacked a hotel where traditional elders and security officials were meeting,” he said.
Al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the hotel attack on Tuesday.
Alasow said the government soldiers backed by African Union troops worked through the night to rescue elders, military officers and civilians trapped inside the hotel.
“During 18 hours of siege, our brave soldiers shot dead two militants, and four of them desperately blew themselves up when they realized that they could not escape,” he said. “Seven other people, including government security officials and two prominent traditional elders, were killed.”
Since August 2022, when Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called for a “total war” against al-Shabab, Beledweyne, a town near Somalia’s border with Ethiopia in Hirshabelle state, about 300 kilometers north of Mogadishu, has been the center of a local community mobilization against al-Shabab.
The city has suffered more terrorist attacks than any other in Somalia except Mogadishu. Since 2009, hundreds of people have been killed in suicide attacks and car bombs on hotels, restaurants and government bases. The single biggest attack, in 2009, killed at least 25 people and injured 60 others.
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