Somali forces end jihadist hotel siege, says security commander in Mogadishu

"The security forces have ended the siege now and the gunmen are dead, we've had no incoming gunfire from the building in the past hour," the official said

Somali forces have ended a deadly siege by Al-Shabaab jihadists at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu that lasted about 30 hours, a security commander told AFP around midnight Saturday.

"The security forces have ended the siege now and the gunmen are dead, we've had no incoming gunfire from the building in the past hour," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official gave no information about the total number of casualties in the attack on the Hayat Hotel, or how many Al-Shabaab fighters had been killed, adding that the government would give a press briefing about the bloody attack on Sunday morning.

The hotel has been destroyed following a bombardment by security forces to eliminate the assailants who were holed up there, but the official said the building needed to be cleared of any explosives that may have been planted.

Earlier, a security official said 13 civilians had been killed, while a hospital director said his facility was treating 40 wounded people from the hotel assault and a separate mortar attack in another part of the city.