Somalia ends deadly hotel siege, toll up to 14

Mogadishu (AFP) - Somali forces battled overnight to end a deadly gun and bomb siege on a Mogadishu hotel by Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants which killed at least 14 people, police said Saturday.

The war-torn country's ambassador to Switzerland Yusuf Bari-Bari was among the dead in Friday's dramatic assault on the Maka al Mukarama hotel, used by politicians, diplomats and businessmen, officials said.

The earlier death toll given was 10.

The attack came as members of Somalia's Western-backed government were meeting at the hotel, located on an arterial road linking the presidential palace to the airport, a Shebab spokesman said.

Police said the last of five rebels who had barricaded themselves into the first-floor of the hotel, where security is extremely tight, were killed early on Saturday.

"Fourteen people were killed and 13 others wounded in the attack," Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Heyr Mareye told reporters at the scene on Saturday.

"The terrorists attacked the hotel with a car filled with explosives and five to six rebels got into where the leaders and diplomats were," he added.

The Shebab, who stage regular attacks in the capital as part of their fight against the country's internationally-backed government and African Union forces supporting it, had targeted the hotel earlier this month and quickly claimed responsibility.

"The mujahedeen fighters are conducting an operation targeting the heads of the apostates in Mogadishu," Shebab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab told AFP on Friday, adding that the militants had been able to quickly seize the hotel.

- 'No safe haven for infidels' -

Another Shebab spokesman Ali Mohamed Rage added that the Islamists would fight on until they defeated "infidels" in the Horn of Africa nation.

"The operation, which lasted almost 20 hours, resulted in the perishing of dozens of apostates and their allies," he said.

"We reiterate again that there will be no safe haven for the crusaders and apostates in Somalia, and that our attacks on them will continue until the enemies of Allah are defeated and His law is implemented fully in Somalia," Rage added.

Police later claimed to have the situation under control, although spokesman Kassim Ahmed Roble said Saturday that fighting had gone on all night.

He said the militants had cut off the hotel's power supply at night to make the counter-attack by Somali soldiers, backed by members of an African Union force, more difficult.

Local residents reported heavy gunfire overnight. One of them, Mohamed Sheikh Ibrahim, said: "The Somali forces sealed off the area this morning."

A car bombing followed by an armed raid has become a trademark tactic of the hardline Islamists, who are fighting to overthrow the Mogadishu government and eject African Union forces supporting it.

The African force, known as Amisom, said their forces would not be daunted by the attack.

"Our message to the perpetrators of this inhuman act is, that their action will not dampen our spirit for the common good of Somalia, but will further strengthen us to work even harder to defeat the enemy of peace and development," said a statement.