Somalia | Survivors tell of restaurant siege by rebels; 31 dead

At least 31 people were killed in the night- long siege of a popular Mogadishu restaurant by al-Shabab Islamic extremists that was ended yesterday by security forces.

Somali survivors early described harrowing scenes in which attackers hunted patrons of the popular Pizza House restaurant. The injured were taken by ambulances.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility as the restaurant was under siege.

Soldiers surrounded the restaurant building and used guns mounted on the backs of vehicles to neutralize the militants. Troops entered the ground floor while the insurgent snipers held positions upstairs.

All five attackers were killed and after dawn the soldiers secured the building, said senior Somali police office Capt. Mohamed Hussein. The troops’ efforts to take control of the restaurant were slowed by the darkness of night, forcing them to wait until morning, said Hussein.

Survivors said they hid under tables and curtains as attackers continued firing in the restaurant and hunted for patrons. Attackers moved from room to room, looking for people, said a survivor.

“I never thought I would have the chance to see the sun again. They were killing people on sight,” Saida Hussein, a university student, told The Associated Press. She said she survived the attack by hiding behind a large table downstairs.

Another survivor, Aden Karie, was wounded by an attacker who spotted him moving behind a curtain in the dark room.

“He shot at me twice and one bullet struck me on the leg,” said Karie as he was taken to an awaiting ambulance.

The roofs were blown off the restaurant and nearby buildings from the powerful blasts.

The bodies of five girls thought to have been killed by the militants were found in the restaurant, said police. Inside the building, the body of a Syrian man who worked as a chef at restaurant lay near the rubble of a blood-spattered and bullet-marked wall.

The attack began Wednesday evening a car bomb exploded at the gate to the restaurant and then gunmen posing as military forces stormed into the establishment.

An ambulance driver with the Amin Ambulance service, Khalif Dahir, said yesterday they had carried 17 bodies and 26 wounded people. Most of the victims were young men who had been entering the Pizza House when the vehicle exploded, Hussein said.

The gunmen “were dressed in military uniforms. They forced those fleeing the site to go inside” the restaurant, witness Nur Yasin told AP.

The blast largely destroyed the restaurant’s facade and sparked a fire. While al-Shabab claimed to have attacked the neighboring Posh Treats restaurant, which is frequented by the city’s elite and was damaged in the blast, security officials said the Pizza House was targeted instead.

Security forces rescued Asian, Ethiopian, Kenyan and other workers at Posh Treats as the attack continued, Hussein said.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu, including hotels, military checkpoints and areas near the presidential palace. It has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it. AP