Police spokesperson Major General Qasim Ahmed Roble told VOA Somali that all five assailants who carried out the attack have been killed, “and now the situation has been normalized.”
Roble said three government soldiers were also killed, and 27 people were injured during the siege of the SYL Hotel that began Thursday evening. He said the injured included nine soldiers and 18 civilians.
VOA reporters who contacted hospitals in Mogadishu put the number of injured at more than 40, including lawmakers, government officials and a journalist.
A former BBC reporter who is currently a Somali government spokesperson, Farhan Jimale, and the owner of a local television station, Hassan Ahmed Ade, were among the injured.
The hotel attack began around 9 p.m. local time Thursday evening, when armed al-Shabab fighters stormed the heavily guarded hotel.
According to residents close to the area, a heavy explosion was detonated outside the hotel. Moments later, deafening gunfire was heard from inside the hotel.
The police spokesperson said the militants started their attack by detonating an explosives-laden vehicle and then the five assailants entered the building.
Earlier, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack on the hotel, which is often frequented by government officials, lawmakers and Somalis from the diaspora.
Media affiliated with the group has also claimed that four Somali MPs were wounded in the attack. The government has not said if there are wounded lawmakers, and VOA could not independently verify al-Shabab’s claim.
Hotels in Somalia are a frequent target of terrorist attacks by al-Shabab. At least 14 individuals were slain when the terrorists assaulted the Villa Rays hotel in the city in 2022.
Three years earlier, at least 26 people were killed in an attack on the Asasey hotel in the port of city of Kismayo. Among those killed were numerous foreigners and a well-known journalist.
