31 killed in siege at Mogadishu restaurant
Print Edition
ISLAMIC extremists killed 31 people — many at point-blank range — before they were slain by security forces after an overnight siege at a restaurant in Mogadishu, police said yesterday.
Survivors described harrowing scenes as the five gunmen hunted for victims in the Pizza House restaurant in the capital of Somalia. Nearly 40 people were wounded.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, which began on Wednesday evening with a car bomb exploding at the gate to the restaurant and ended when troops secured the site after dawn, said senior police Captain Mohamed Hussein.
“I never thought I would have the chance to see the sun again. They were killing people on sight,” university student Saida Hussein told reporters. She survived by hiding behind a large table.
Soldiers in gun-mounted vehicles surrounded the building, and troops later entered the ground floor as al-Shabab snipers defended their positions upstairs.
Aden Karie said he was wounded by an attacker who spotted him behind a curtain.
“He shot at me twice, and one bullet struck me on the leg,” Karie said as he was taken to an ambulance.
The bodies of five girls believed to have been killed by the extremists were found in the restaurant, police said. The body of a Syrian man who worked as a chef lay near a blood-spattered and bullet-marked wall.
The car bomb that began the attack blew the roofs off the restaurant and other nearby buildings. Many of the first victims were young men who had been entering the Pizza House when the bomb went off, Hussein said.
The extremists, appearing to pose as security forces, then rushed inside.
The gunmen “were dressed in military uniforms. They forced those fleeing the site to go inside,” witness Nur Yasin said.
A neighboring restaurant, Posh Treats, frequented by the city’s elite, was damaged in the blast, security officials said. Security forces rescued Asian, Ethiopian, Kenyan and other workers at Posh Treats as the attack continued, Hussein said.
The United States mission to Somalia said many of the victims had been breaking their daily Ramadan fast when the attack began.
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