Al-Shabab Holds True to Word as Blood is Shed

It was a peaceful Wednesday night in Mogadishu, the Capital of Somalia before all hell broke loose. Al-Shabab, the notorious terror group linked to Al Qaeda, took credit for the attack.

The carnage began when a car bomb went out in front of the popular pizza place “Pizza House.” The initial blast destroyed the front of the building and then started a fire. As expected, the chaos which followed including many people running around, but not all that were present were trying to help.

The gunfire began Wednesday nights and two militants were killed and 10 hostages were saved, but the gunfire continued into Thursday morning.

The extremists present were dressed as Somalia military personnel. According to witness Nur Yasin,  the terrorists “forced those fleeing the site to go inside [the restaurant].” Once they barricaded themselves inside of the restaurant they then cut off electricity to the building. This made recovery efforts by security much more complicated than anticipated.

The security was able to save those fleeing from the surrounding restaurants.

Once the firing had ceased the civilian death total was at 17, with dozens more taken as hostages. This attack fit right in with others carried out by Al Shabab as they tend to target very popular areas in Mogadishu including various hotels, military checkpoints and other areas which surround the presidential palace.

This attack is a direct result of the election which just took place in Somalia. When Former Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was elected he declared to increase the military offensive currently in place to combat the terror group. As expected, this did not sit well with Al Shabab who declared they would step up their attacks after hearing the news. Will this be the first of many attacks to come?