Somalia executes militants by firing squad for Mogadishu hotel attack

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali government has on Wednesday executed three men in Mogadishu for masterminding a deadly siege at a hotel that killed at least 18 people and injured 48 in 2017, Garowe Online reports.

The country’s military court has convicted Farhan Mohamed, Abdinasir Dhaqane and Abshir Mohamed for their role in a 12-hour Al-Shabab gun and bomb attack at Nasa Hablod 2 hotel in October 2017.

A group of five extremists armed with Ak-47 rifles and grenades stormed the building after a bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the entrance gate who engaged in a fierce gunfight with troops throughout the night.

The three young men who have been veteran members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab extremist group were arrested hours after security forces ended the siege at the hotel as they tried to escape, according to a court statement.

They have been sentenced to death in May 2018 by the military court in Mogadishu.

The assault took place two weeks after more than 750 people were killed by a massive truck bomb at K5 junction, a busy Mogadishu street which became Somalia's worst ever terrorist attack in history.

The execution will concern human rights campaigners. Death sentences have been carried out increasingly often in the unstable eastern African state in recent years, with 24 executions in 2017.

Somalia receives significant military assistance from the US and the UK in its fight against Al-Shabab, which still controls large parts of the country and maintains power to carry out car bomb bombs in Mogadishu. 

A 22,000-strong multinational African Union forces in Somalia [AMISOM] who have been protecting the government since 2007 are expected to withdraw its forces and hand over the country's security to the Somali military by the end of 2020.

GAROWE ONLINE