Al-Shabaab Attacks Somali Capital, Kills 30

In a battle that started on Thursday and raged well into Friday, Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants attacked the capital city of Mogadishu. The fighting began when they set off two car bombs, one at a major hotel, and the other near the home of the Chief Judge of the appellate court.

This instigated major gun battles in both areas, with cars being set on fire, walls of buildings blown out, and attackers spraying storefronts with bullets. 20 hours later, the fighting was over, officials said 30 were killed and another 80 confirmed wounded. The toll is expected to rise substantially.

This is the biggest attack inside Mogadishu in awhile, and comes after US reports in recent weeks that they’ve been escalating airstrikes against al-Shabaab and killing growing numbers of them.

The targeted hotel was said to be popular with Somali government officials, so while the fighting turned into chaos across the area, the initial attack was clearly intended to kill members of the US-backed government.

Exactly who was killed remains to be seen, but a number of al-Shabaab fighters were slain, and police confirmed at least two soldiers also died. Al-Shabaab has as yet issued no claims of their own.