DTN News: Somalia TODAY August 24, 2010 - At Least 33 People Killed In Attack On Somali Hotel

DTN News: Somalia TODAY August 24, 2010 - At Least 33 People Killed In Attack On Somali Hotel

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including The New York Times By Jeffrey Gettleman & Mohamed Ibrahim contributed to this report from Galkaiyo, Somalia

(NSI News Source Info) NAIROBI, Kenya - August 24, 2010: Somali insurgents disguised in government military uniforms stormed a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and killed at least 30 people, including 6 lawmakers, laying bare how vulnerable the Somali government is, even in an area it claims to control.

Somali government forces walk outside the Muna Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, Tuesday Aug, 24, 2010. A suicide bomber and a gunman stormed the hotel in Somalia's capital on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people, including members of parliament, a military spokesman said.

The insurgents methodically moved room to room, killing hotel guests who tried to bolt their doors shut, Somali officials said. When government forces finally cornered the gunmen, two insurgents blew themselves up with suicide vests.

The heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the beginning of the Holy Month of Ramadan, causes the death of at least 36 civilians and the injury of 95 others. Mogadishu, Somalia. 24/08/2010

The attack shows that “operational momentum has shifted to the insurgents, who can go anywhere they want except where the African peacekeepers are deployed,” said J. Peter Pham, senior vice president at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

Somalia's Islamist Shebab fighters patrol on August 23, 2010 near a camp in northern Mogadishu�s Suqaholaha neighborhood minutes before they engaged in an offensive against the Somali government forces which left at least 12 dead on August 23, 2010. Somalia's Shebab launched an offensive against government troops and African Unionforces in Mogadishu Monday, sparking clashes that left 11 civilians dead and 53 wounded, medics said. The Al Qaeda-inspired insurgent group launched an offensive against government army barracks in the neighbourhoods of Hodan, in the south, and Bondhere, in the north, witnesses said.

Several Somali politicians said the government was so thoroughly under siege that it could only work from behind fortified, sandbagged positions, and that the shrinking government enclave in Mogadishu, the capital, could soon vanish altogether.

Somalia's Islamist Shebab fighters hold a position on August 23, 2010 at a camp in northern Mogadishu�s Suqaholaha neighborhood minutes before they engaged in an offensive against the Somali government forces which left at least 12 dead. Somalia's Shebab launched an offensive against government troops and African Union forces in Mogadishu Monday, sparking clashes that left 11 civilians dead and 53 wounded, medics said.

“The problem is the government is not working hard on security; it’s the same old thing,” said Asha A. Abdalla, a member of parliament who was in Nairobi during the attack. Like many others in the 550-member Somali parliament, she often stays in Kenya because of the dangers of living in her country.

AP

Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for the al-Shabab militia,Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010, in Mogadishu,Somalia who said that members of the group's "special forces" had carried out the attack against those "aiding the infidels." Scores of people were killed during the attack.

“But I don’t know what the A.U. is doing either,” Mrs. Asha said, referring to the more than 6,000 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu. “If they are not protecting MPs, who are they protecting?”

UNAMID soldiers guard a high-level meeting with Chinese, European, United Nations and African Unionofficials in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur on July 5, 2010.

The most powerful insurgents are the Shabab, a militant Islamist group that has publicly stoned civilians to death and pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. The Shabab seem to be constantly two steps ahead of Somalia’s transitional government, analysts say, despite the fact that the Somali government receives tens of millions of dollars in security assistance from the United States and other Western countries.

An African Union (AU) Peacekeeping Forces soldier patrols the Port of Mogadishu 09 December 2007 inSomalia. One person was killed today and three others wounded when Somali forces clashed with Islamist insurgents in a volatile area of the capital Mogadishu, witnesses said.

American officials have said the transitional government, however weak and disorganized, is the best bulwark against a Shabab-ruled Somalia, though in reality the Shabab already rule much of Somalia.

Residents in southern Mogadishu, Somalia, look at the dead body of a man, Somali government claimed to be an Islamist militant who was killed by a roadside bomb he was planting under a pile of garbage near a street in southern Mogadishu's Afisiyoni area, on Saturday Aug. 21, 2010.

The battle now seems to be turning to Mogadishu, specifically the few neighborhoods that the government still marginally controls, like the areas around the presidential palace, seaport and airport. Earlier this year, Somali government officials promised to sweep the Shabab out of the capital and expand their zone. But government forces have been plagued by defections and apathy, Somali commanders concede, and it seems that the Shabab are the ones on the offensive. The hotel raid followed intense shelling against government positions on Monday, which killed dozens of people and sent mortar bombs crashing into camps for internally displaced people. “There’s been fierce fighting and the government is getting pushed back,” said Abdirizak Farah, a shopkeeper who fled his home at 4 a.m. Tuesday to seek shelter closer to government troops. The three story hotel that was attacked, the Muna, was popular among Somali lawmakers because it was thought to be secure and is located less than a mile away from the presidential palace in a breezy seaside neighborhood. Witnesses said a group of about three to five insurgents appeared at the gate at 10:30 a.m. wearing government military uniforms, and that as soon as the hotel guards opened the way for them, the gunmen opened fire. They then rushed into the hotel corridors, shooting everyone in sight. Government forces arrived a few minutes later and battled the insurgents room-by-room, eventually pushing the gunmen to the upper floor. According to witnesses, several lawmakers tried to lock themselves in their rooms, but they were hunted down and shot at close range with assault rifles. “They killed everyone they saw inside the hotel and then blew themselves up,” said Abdirahman Omar Osman, Somalia’s information minister. Mr. Abdirahman called the attack “murder” and said it was “against Islamic religion,” especially during the holy month of Ramadan. Another Somali official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Shabab were “using all tactics. They don’t care about Ramadan. They are criminals. They are terrorists.” An 11-year-old shoeshine boy and a woman selling tea in front of the hotel were also killed, African Union officials said. The hotel raid seemed to have been planned well in advance, and several residents living near the hotel said that Shabab fighters had been renting rooms for weeks in their neighborhood, leading them to expect a major attack. A Shabab spokesman on Tuesday said that Shabab "special forces" were the ones who stormed the hotel. Earlier on Tuesday, the government claimed to have captured one of the attackers. The last time the government was dealt such a deadly blow was in December, when the Shabab killed four government ministers in a suicide bombing at a medical school graduation in another hotel in the government zone. Then in July, the Shabab claimed credit for killing dozens of World Cup fans in coordinated bombings in Uganda, saying it was revenge against Ugandan peacekeepers. Analysts said that Tuesday’s raid on the hotel, though, was something different, with gunmen going toe-to-toe against government forces in an area teeming with government troops, which seemed to be a sign of increasingly brazen and confident insurgents. Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since 1991, when the central government collapsed. Several Somali officials have conceded that if it were not for the African Union peacekeepers, the transitional government would fall, most likely in hours. *This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com