Somali hotel siege ends with 16 dead

Al-Shabaab extremists set off a car bomb on Sunday afternoon that destroyed the security gates to the Elite Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia. Gunmen then stormed the hotel and began a nearly five-hour siege. Government spokesman Ismael Mukhtaar Omar confirmed the end of the siege after special forces killed the last attacker. At least 16 people died, 11 victims and five attackers, and troops rescued more than 200 people from the hotel.

What inspired the attack? The Islamist extremist group claimed responsibility for the raid on the hotel, which is owned by a Somali lawmaker and frequented by government officials. At least 20 people died during another shootout last week when some of the group’s insurgents tried to escape from a prison in Mogadishu.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report in Globe Trot on the group’s attack on U.S. forces in Kenya.