Somalia bloody day, 17 people killed

According to military sources, Al-Shabab forces in Somalia launched a suicide car bomb and gun attack, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 20 others during five hours of fighting between al-Shabab forces and security forces.

The attack was carried out by four members of al-Shabab, and despite their entry into the hotel and taking control of parts of it, the attack ended with the killing of all four by security forces.

Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen is a group that fights on behalf of al-Qaeda in Somalia, and some of its allied groups and forces also follow ISIS. The origins of these groups go back to the Somali civil war and were formed under the name of the Islamic Courts Union. This alliance was under the influence of southern Somalia and later split into various groups, and with the rise of ISIS, some of these groups became the Al-Shabab pact. Al-Shabab’s terrorist activities are currently limited to Somalia and Kenya.