Somali gunmen storm hotel, 15 MPs reported killed

24 Aug 2010 10:04:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
* MPs "slaughtered" inside Mogadishu hotel

* African Union confirms 15 people killed, no identity given

* Hotel near Somalia presidential palace
(Adds quotes from Information Minister, government source, detail on neighbourhood)

By Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Somali gunmen disguised in army uniforms stormed a hotel popular with government officials on Tuesday and a legislator said at least 15 parliamentarians were killed.

Hardline al Shabaab Islamists linked to al Qaeda have waged a three-year insurgency against the fragile Western-backed government and control most of Mogadishu. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

"They have slaughtered 15 MPs. We are surrounding the hotel area. We want to catch them and our troops are there," legislator Mohamed Hasan told Reuters by telephone.

The African Union confirmed at least 15 people were killed in the attack on the Huna Hotel, in a government-controlled neighbourhood between the presidential palace and the Indian Ocean. It did not say whether the dead were all MPs.

The assault underscored the failure of the government and more than 6,300 African Union peacekeepers to bring order to Somalia after nearly two decades of anarchy, making it a continual source of instability for east Africa.

A hotel worker who fled the hotel said one of the attackers was a suicide bomber and had blown himself up.

The Somali government, which is recognised by the United Nations but controls no more than a few city blocks, said one gunman had been captured after the attack while two remained holed up inside.

"There is fighting going on," Information Minister Abdirahman Osman told Reuters.

NEW PEACEKEEPERS

The attack came a day after the African Union announced the arrival of hundreds of new peacekeeping troops, mostly Ugandans, for the AMISOM mission to help the government in the battle against al Shabaab. [ID:nLDE67M1OC]

The peacekeepers have been able to do little more than guard the airport and port and shield President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

A government security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more than 300 armed al Shabaab fighters were thought to live in the Elgaab neighbourhood where the hotel is located.

"They disguise themselves as civilians running different smaller businesses and working in different restaurants and shops," he said.

The insurgents, who control much of the capital and large areas in central and south Somalia, have attracted foreign fighters to the lawless country.

At least 25 people were killed in clashes on Monday.

More than 21,000 Somalis have been killed in fighting since the start of the insurgency, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes and nearly half a million are sheltering in other countries in the region.

The ever present threat from Somalia to its fast-growing neighbours was highlighted last month by al Shabaab suicide bombings which killed 70 people in Uganda, which provides the bulk of the African Union force.

(Additional reporting by Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Abdiaziz Hassan and Sahra Abdi in Nairobi; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)