SOMALIA TERRORIST ATTACK: TERRORISTS KILL AT ASASEY HOTEL
When it was over, the bloodied remains of
26 dead and at least 56 wounded were strewn throughout this hotel. WARNING:
Graphic
The terror youth cell, who call themselves
“al-Shabaab” or “the guys”, showed no mercy when their gunmen stormed a Somali
hotel in a shocking slaughter which left a trail of bodies. When it was over,
the bloodied remains of 26 dead and at least 56 wounded were strewn throughout
the Asasey hotel in the port city of Kismayo, 500km south of the capital
Mogadishu.
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The dead included YouTube star and
prominent Canadian-Somali journalist, Hodan Nalayeh, 43 and her husband, Farid
Jama Suleiman. In a 12-hour battle by authorities to regain control, the
gunfire in the attack was so intense, the walls of the hotel itself
disintegrated. The hotel is commonly frequented by politicians and local
patrons of industry. Al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahideen’s Movement of
Striving Youth, began as an armed wing in the early 2000s to wage war against
the Somalian government and “enemies of Islam”. Its most famous member is
Britain’s “white widow”, Samantha Lewthwaite, the West’s most wanted terror
suspect.
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The Irish-born 35-year-old is currently the
subject of an Interpol Red Notice, and a fugitive from justice in Kenya for
orchestrating grenade attacks at non-Muslim places of worship. Lewthwaite is
also a suspect in the 2012 Mombasa sports bar attack, and the 2013 Westgate
shopping mall attack in Kenya. Al-Shabaab splintered in 2011 and formed
alliances with Al-Qaeda and the West African terrorist group famous for mass
kidnapping of girls, Boko Haram. In September 2014, a Somali government-led US
drone attack killed the head of the group’s foreign legion, Ahmed Abdi Godane.
Five days later, Ahmad Umar was named his successor,
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In October 2017, al-Shabaab carried out the
truck bombing massacre in Mogadishu which killed 87 people and injured 316. In
Saturday’s attack, al-Shabaab blew up the gate of a Asasey hotel with a car
bomb and at least four jihadis took over the building for 12 hours until Somali
forces killed them. Among the dead are three Kenyans, three Tanzanians, two
Americans and a Briton, said Ahmed Madobe, the president of Jubaland regional
state which controls Kismayo. Witnesses told the BBC they heard a huge blast
before several heavily armed men forced their way in. “There is chaos inside, I
saw several dead bodies carried from the scene and people are fleeing from the
nearby buildings,” witness Hussein Muktar said during the attack.
Photos of the hotel after the attack showed
the building peppered with bullet holes and scarred by heavy fighting.
Al-Shabaab, which often uses car bombs to infiltrate heavily fortified targets
like the hotel, claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack is a blow to
the Somalia government’s efforts to hold nationwide, one-person one-vote
elections next year. Security officials cordoned off the site of the attack and
prevented journalists from taking photos or video of the damaged hotel and in
some cases destroyed journalists’ cameras. Government officials have not been
available for further interviews. “I’m absolutely devastated by the news of the
death of our dear sister Hodan Nalayeh and her husband in a terrorist attack in
Somalia today. What a loss to us. Her beautiful spirit shined through her work
and the way she treated people,” Omar Suleiman, a Texas-based imam who knew the
victim, wrote on social media.
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Nalayeh was born in Somalia in 1976, but
spent most of her life in Canada, first in Alberta and then in Toronto. She
founded Integration TV, an international web-based video production company
aimed at Somali viewers around the world. She was the first Somali woman media
owner in the world. Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Ahmed Hussen mourned Hodan Nalayeh’s death on Twitter, saying she “highlighted
the community’s positive stories and contributions in Canada” through her work
as a journalist. “We mourn her loss deeply, and all others killed in the
Kismayo attack,” he wrote.
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Nalayeh’s endless “positivity” and “love
for people” was inspiring, said Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Andrea
Horwath on Twitter. “In Ontario, Hodan launched Integration TV to tell the
beautiful stories of the Somali Diaspora, and took that same humanity and love
to her reporting and storytelling in Somalia. “My thoughts are with her family,
and the victims of the Kismayo attack during this horrific time.” A top official
of the African Union condemned the attack. “This is an attack meant to derail
progress in Somalia as the country rebuilds and consolidates the gains made on
peace and security,” said Francisco Madeira, special representative of the
chairman of the African Union Commission. “Somalia has made tremendous progress
in seizing territory and pushing out the terrorists from many places across the
country.” He said the African Union’s multinational force in Somalia will
continue to work to stabilise the country.
— AP journalist Natalie Schachar
contributed from Mexico City
Source: news.com.au - 14 July 2019
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