At Least 19 Killed As Islamists Attack Somali Restaurant

The Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed many on the Lido beach.

Witnesses said that gunmen shouted “Allahu akbar”, the Arabic phrase for “God is great”, and entered the restaurant from the direction of the beach as clients.

Security forces then surrounded the attackers at the restaurant for eight hours overnight before the siege was ended.

As the attack on a Kenya Defense Forces base in Somalia on January 15 remains shrouded in mystery, Anadolu Agency has confirmed that so far 31 bodies of soldiers have been flown to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Hussein, the police official, said security forces rescued many people who had been trapped. However, today they’ve been anchored in the water while armed guards patrol the beach and distraught relatives pick up the dead from the bloodied restaurant. Four of the gunmen were killed, while the fifth was captured.

No group has said it carried out the attack but suspicion has fallen on al-Shabab which carried out similar bombings in the past. The city represents Somalia’s recent success in getting locals to use the beach area for recreational activities like swimming, surfing and walking along the beach. “The mujahedeen fighters targeted the Lido Beach”, the militants said on the group’s Radio Andalus, calling it a “major operation against the enemy of Allah”.

Somalis reacted with grief and defiance on Friday after a bomb and gun assault by al-Shabaab militants on a popular beachfront restaurant in Mogadishu left at least 17 dead and dozens wounded. “We must appreciate their swift arrival and how they carried out their counter offensive”, Keating said in a statement on behalf of the UN.

Last week, al-Shabaab militants attacked Kenyan peacekeepers at an African Union military base in the southern Somali village of El-Ade.