Killed in Mogadishu Restaurant Siege

A suicide vehicle bombing by Al-Shabaab militants on two neighbouring restaurants in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed 18 persons.

The al-Shabab militant group said it carried out the attack.

Police say managed to release 10 people who were held hostage.

Witnesses said the gunmen entered Posh Treats and proceeding to Pizza House where they put up a fierce resistance against the security forces who were trying to end the siege.

Security forces ended the siege this morning after the extremist snipers fired on them.

"Blood splattered across my clothes, and I had a piece of flesh on me, as people sitting around me were either dead or wounded", Said Yare, a customer of Pizza House restaurant, told dpa. The attack began at around 8pm (17.00GMT) on the evening of 14 June with a suicide auto bombing at the Post Treats restaurant and club, after which gunmen stormed inside the nearby Pizza House restaurant.

A member of Somalia's security forces walks past destroyed vehicles at the scene of a auto bomb blast and gun battle targeting a restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 15, 2017.

'A mujahid (fighter) with his suicide auto bomb martyred himself after he rammed into Posh Hotel, which is a nightclub. The number includes two neutralized hostage takers and a Syrian man, police officer Mohamed Hussein said, gunmen stormed into a restaurant adjacent to the hotel, taking hostages.

Thursday's attack was the first targeting civilians in Mogadishu since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Shabaab has been fighting for the last decade to overthrow successive internationally-backed governments in Mogadishu and has also launched attacks in Kenya and Uganda, both contributors to a 22,000-strong African Union force in the country.

While al-Shabab claimed to have attacked the neighbouring Posh Treats restaurant, which is frequented by the city's elite and was damaged in the blast, security officials said the Pizza House was targeted instead. "Eastern Daylight Time, the Department of Defense conducted a strike operation against al-Shabaab in Somalia", Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement on Sunday.

"Earlier today, I authorised our special forces with the support of our global partners to conduct a strike against an al Shabaab training camp near Sakow", his statement said.