Alwaght- Al-Shabab Takfiri terrorists have killed at least 19 people during a car bomb and gun attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
A car driven by a suicide bomber rammed into the Posh Hotel in south Mogadishu on Wednesday evening before gunmen rushed into Pizza House, an adjacent restaurant, and took 20 people hostage.
District police Chief Abdi Bashir says security forces took back control of the restaurant at midnight after the gunmen had held hostages inside for several hours. Five of the gunmen were killed, Bashir said.
Ahmed Mohamud Adow, the spokesman for the country's interior ministry, said the dead included a Syrian national who worked at the restaurant. He did not identify the dead Syrian who local residents said worked as a chef at the Pizza House. Both venues are popular with affluent, young and diaspora Somalis and were busy as customers broke the Ramadan fast. The terrorists spent the night roaming the restaurant killing those they found trapped before they were eventually killed by security forces whose operation had been slowed by the darkness.
Al-Shabab Takfiri terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group affiliated to al-Qaeda terrorist network claimed on Thursday morning it killed more than 20 people including soldiers and government workers.
Since losing large swathes of territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the government, the Takfiri group has frequently launched raids and deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government.
The Horn of Africa country has been racked by armed conflict since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who was elected into office earlier this year, promised to defeat al-Shabab.
