Somalia’s police and security agency chiefs were fired on Sunday, one day after at least 25 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a hotel in Mogadishu.
The two men, police chief Abdihakim Dahir Said and National Intelligence and Security Agency chief Mohamed Abdullahi Ali, were sacked after the government held an emergency meeting, police officer Ali Hassan said.
The attack took place late Saturday when two car bombs exploded and gunmen from the militant group al-Shabaab stormed a hotel in the Somali capital. The siege lasted over 10 hours.
The Nasahablood 2 hotel is popular with government officials. A former deputy minister of livestock and a senior police commissioner were killed in the assault.
The bomb blasts came just weeks after more than 350 people were killed in a similar attack, which the government blames on al-Shabaab.
Since that attack on October 14, the deadliest ever in the volatile East African country, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has vowed to eradicate al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group that is seeking an Islamist state in Somalia.
By Mohamed Odowa, dpa.
