31 killed in al-Shabab attack on restaurant in Somali capital
The roofs were blown off the restaurant and nearby buildings by the blast.
The death toll in an overnight attack by al-Shabab extremists on a popular restaurant in Somalia’s capital has risen to 31.
Police captain Mohamed Hussein said many of the victims were killed at point-blank range after the attackers hunted them down.
Police say nearly 40 people were wounded in the assault that began when a car bomb exploded outside the Pizza House restaurant in Mogadishu.
Security forces ended the siege on Thursday morning after the extremist snipers fired on them. Capt Hussein said all five attackers were killed.
Survivors described harrowing scenes of hiding under tables and behind curtains as attackers searched for patrons in the darkened restaurant.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility shortly after the assault began, when a car bomb exploded at the gate to the restaurant and gunmen posing as military troops stormed in. The roofs were blown off the restaurant and nearby buildings by the blast.
Soldiers surrounded the building and used vehicle-mounted guns to neutralise the attackers. Troops then entered the ground floor while the extremist snipers held positions upstairs.
All five attackers were killed and the soldiers secured the building after dawn. Efforts to take control of the restaurant had been slowed by the onset of nightfall, Capt Hussein said.
Saida Hussein, a university student, said she survived by hiding behind a large table downstairs.”I never thought I would have the chance to see the sun again,” she said.
“They were killing people on sight.”
Another survivor, Aden Karie, was wounded by an attacker who spotted him moving behind a curtain.
“He shot at me twice and one bullet struck me on the leg,” he said.
The bodies of five girls thought to have been killed by the extremists were found in the restaurant, police said.
Inside the building, the body of a Syrian man who worked as a chef there lay near the rubble of a blood-spattered and bullet-marked wall.
Many early victims were young men who had been entering the Pizza House when the vehicle exploded, Capt Hussein said.
The gunmen “were dressed in military uniforms. They forced those fleeing the site to go inside” the restaurant, witness Nur Yasin said.
