Terrorist group Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a staged attack on a hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia: At least seven people they were injured. The attack took place in the Pearl Beach hotel restaurant. From the first information, the Somali security forces managed to rescue many civilians who were in the restaurant and to kill the militants of Al-Shabab. Hussein Mohamed, a waiter at another restaurant near the site of the attack, told Reuters news agency he heard an explosion followed by gunfire.
Al Shabaab, which is Arabic for “the youth,” grew out of the Islamic Courts Union, a network of Islamist groups that took control of Mogadishu in early 2006. From 2007 to 2011 it came to control Mogadishu and several cities in Somalia. It had suffered several defeats in 2014 after a heightened military offensive by African Union forces, and it appeared that its threat had diminished. At the moment the group controls some parts of the country and carries out frequent attacks: its ultimate intent is to overthrow the central government and gain power to govern following a strict interpretation of Islamic law.