According to the AP news agency, at least 20 people died and 40 were wounded in the attack.
The armed conflict in the hotel located in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has ended, the commander of the security forces tells the news agency AFP.
According to the commander, all the Islamists entrenched in the Hayat Hotel have died. The commander says that no more shots have been heard from the hotel.
The battles between the security forces and the Islamists in the hotel lasted for about 30 hours. Gunmen from the Al-Shabaab Islamist organization began their attack on the hotel on Friday evening.
According to the AP news agency, at least 20 people died and 40 were wounded in the attack.
Al-Shabaab’s permanent rule expanding?
The hotel attack was al-Shabaab’s first bloodbath in the capital since the president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud began his term of office in May.
Al-Shabaab is a splinter group of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, which has traditionally controlled most of southern and central Somalia. More recently, however, the organization has managed to expand its influence also to areas that were previously under the control of the government.
Al-Shabaab fighters have also recently attacked targets along the border with Ethiopia, prompting security experts to believe that the organization is seeking to push into new areas.
According to a US estimate, al-Shabaab has 5,000-10,000 fighters in its ranks in a country with a total of about 15 million inhabitants, and the organization controls large areas in the southern and central parts of Somalia, reports the Financial Times.