Latest developments on the hotel siege in Somalia! There is a large number of dead

Last week, we published the news of the raid on Hayat Hotel, which was taken prisoner by a terrorist organization on Friday. According to the information transferred, there was an increase in the death toll.

Somali security forces said they rescued 106 stranded people. Somalia's health ministry announced that 21 people died in the raid.

"I would like to inform all Somalis that the operation at the hotel was concluded at midnight," police Commander Abdi Hassan Mohammed Hijra told journalists in a briefing that took place close to the site of the attack. "It is shocking that innocent people lost their lives here... The security forces were engaged in rescuing the people one by one and in groups."

From Friday night, large explosions and intense clashes took place at the hotel. The damage to the hotel is quite extensive.

"It has been terrible, really terrifying living next door to the gunfire, the explosions. It was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen in Mogadishu," Abdisalam Guled, a former deputy director of Somalia's national intelligence agency, told the BBC.

Who are Somalia's al-Shabab?

Clashes broke out after the hotel, which they entered with a bomb attack. Security forces struggled to gain access to the upper floors of the hotel for hours because the gunmen, who were holding an unknown number of people hostage, had reportedly bombed out the stairs needed for access.

An affiliate of al-Qaeda, al-Shabab has engaged in a long-running conflict with the federal government.

The group controls much of southern and central Somalia but has been able to extend its influence into areas controlled by the government based in Mogadishu.

In recent weeks, fighters affiliated with the group have also attacked targets along the Somalia-Ethiopia border, which has raised concerns about a possible new strategy by al-Shabab.

The attack on Friday marks the first in the capital by the group since Somalia's new President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was elected in May.

Hotels and restaurants have been frequent targets, but Mogadishu saw its deadliest attack in October 2017, when more than 500 people were killed when a truck filled with explosives was detonated at one of the city's busiest intersections.

No group said it was behind that attack, although correspondents say all indications are that al-Shabab was responsible.