Somalia: SYL Hotel Siege Ends, All Militants Killed

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Facts

  • Somali security forces on Friday killed the al-Shabab gunmen who seized a popular SYL Hotel located near the presidential palace in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, for 13 hours.1
  • All five militants were killed, along with three government soldiers. During the siege that began Thursday evening, 27 people were also injured, mostly civilians.2
  • Several al-Shabab fighters reportedly attacked the hotel at around 9:45 p.m. local time, minutes after two explosions rocked the city, one of which allegedly destroyed the hotel's perimeter wall.3
  • Al-Shabab, affiliated with al-Qaida and designated as a terrorist organization by the US, has previously targeted multiple hotels in Somalia. In 2022, it attacked the Villa Rays hotel and killed at least 14 people.4
  • Pres. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared 'total war' against al-Shabab, which controls large swathes of territory in central and southern Somalia. Scores of US airstrikes have also targeted its sites recently.5
  • However, the militants reportedly regained control last week after government forces and local militias withdrew from the central Mudug region allegedly due to unpaid salaries, bribery, and internal political discord.6

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2VOA, 3The National, 4BBC News, 5Africa News and 6Hiiraan.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by The Somali Digest. This latest assault in a highly secured area in Mogadishu further indicates that al-Shabab has infiltrated the Somali state machinery, something that has been feared since an insider attack in Camp Gordon. Somalia must urgently review its security protocols and processes, and the international community must boost its support for the country to defeat terrorism.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by The Grayzone. Before the 2006 US and UK-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia that sent the country into a death spiral, al-Shabab was a non-violent political party. In pursuit of global military expansion, the West — with Pres. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as its proxy — has yet again helped cause the problems it's now trying to 'fix.' The last thing needed is more Western meddling.

Predictions