Somali security forces Thursday ended an overnight siege by extremist gunmen at a hotel in the capital which killed least 15 people, including two members of parliament, officials said. According to AP, the assault started when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated outside the Ambassador Hotel Wednesday evening and three militants stormed inside the building, said the African Union Mission in Somalia. Extremist group Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, which sheared off the front of the luxury hotel and left blood spattered on bullet-marked walls. The twisted remains of dozens of vehicles ringed the site. One militant was killed at the entrance to the hotel while two others entered and shot at residents, the AU force said in a statement. All the attackers were killed in the siege. Nine bodies were removed from the hotel after troops killed the remaining assailants, Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer, told The Associated Press. Six out of 40 people injured in the attack died from their wounds, Ahmed Mohamed, a nurse at Madina hospital in Mogadishu, said. Victims screamed in pain in overwhelmed hospitals, and there were fears the death toll could rise.
