By: Times News Service. Mogadishu: At least 19 people were killed when militants launched a car bomb and gun attack on a busy hotel and adjacent restaurant in the Somali capital, a police officer said on Thursday. A car driven by a suicide bomber rammed into the Posh Hotel in south Mogadishu on Wednesday evening before gunmen rushed into Pizza House, an adjacent restaurant, and took 20 people hostage. Posh Hotel is the only venue with a discotheque in the capital.
District police chief Abdi Bashir told Reuters Somali security forces took back control of the restaurant at midnight after the gunmen had held hostages inside for several hours.
Five of the gunmen were killed, Bashir said. Witnesses said there were bodies lying at the scene on Thursday morning as ambulances came to take them away.
Ahmed Mohamud Adow, the spokesman for the country's interior ministry, said the dead included a Syrian national who worked at the restaurant.
He did not identify the dead Syrian who local residents said worked as a chef at the Pizza House. Another 27 civilians were taken to hospital with various injuries, ambulance services said.
