Official: Al-Shabab siege at Somali hotel ends, 21 dead

Bullet-pocked walls and overturned chairs mark the reception area of a prominent hotel in the Somali capital following an attack that killed at least 21, including six attackers Blood spattered utensils, bullet-pocked walls and overturned chairs mark the reception area of a prominent hotel in the Somali capital following an attack by Islamic extremists that killed at least 21, including six attackers.

Somali special forces stood over three bloodied bodies of the alleged attackers after officials declared they have full control of the Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel on March 28, more than 12 hours after gunmen, believed to be six in number, from the Islamic rebel group al-Shabab took up positions in the hotel.

The gunfire has stopped and security agents control the whole building, said senior police officer Capt. Mohamed Hussein. He had earlier said the gunmen were believed to have occupied the third and fourth floors of the hotel in the capital Mogadishu.

"The operation has ended. We have taken full control of the hotel," Hussein said.

Hussein said security forces found four more bodies in the hotel earlier on March 28, plus nine dead on March 27. Four more people died in the hospital, according to Duniya Mohamed, a doctor at Madina hospital in Mogadishu. Hussein Ali, an official of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said 28 people were wounded.

Six attackers were killed, said Ridwan Abdiweli, Somalia's government spokesman. Officials displayed the bodies of three attackers but did not give an explanation of where the bodies of the other attackers were.

Somalia's ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Yusuf Bari-Bari was among those killed in the attack...