Militants detonated a vehicle bomb outside the heavily fortified Somali Youth League hotel before moving inside.
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Al-Shabab gunmen stormed the hotel in central Mogadishu after detonating a auto bomb outside its gates.
Another explosion was heard inside the hotel after the first auto bomb, BBC reports.
However, al-Shabab claimed to have killed more than 100 Kenyan troops during the deadly assault.
Somalia has managed to push out the group from their major cities, but the Al Qaeda affiliate continues to attack, trying to gain a stronghold.
The National Intelligence and Security of Agency (NISA) of Somalia tweeted that the Hotel SYL was apparently targeted, though it wasn’t clear if the attackers got past the hotel’s gates.
Several recent attacks have seen explosive-laden cars driven at speed into the walls of hotels, with gunmen then entering to mow down staff and clients.
The SYL hotel, which is located across from presidential palace in Mogadishu, is frequented by government officials and business executives.
Al-Shabab’s April 2 attack on Garissa University in Kenya, in which 148 people, majority students, died, had been considered the deadliest attack by the militant group.
Police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said Thursday the mortars hit a residential area of the capital, Mogadishu.
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At least 180 Kenyan troops were killed when Al Shabaab attacked their camp at El Adde, Somalia in mid January, this is according to Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohammud.
