Four government soldiers, an American women originally from Somalia and the Somali ambassador to Switzerland were among those who died following the raid on Hotel Maka Al-Mukarrama, which started on Friday, Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye said at a briefing outside the hotel. More than 20 people were injured, including Somalia’s ambassador to Germany, he said.

The attackers detonated a car bomb at the gate of the hotel before entering the compound and firing automatic weapons, Mohammed Said, a police officer, said on Friday. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to Radio Andalus. It’s the second time in less than two weeks that the hotel, popular with government officials, has been targeted.

“We will continue to eliminate militants from Somali soil,” the information minister said. The attackers, who had joined Islamic State, were armed with hand grenades and knives, which they wanted to use to behead as many people as possible, Mareye said.

Al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency in the Horn of Africa, nation since 2006, in a bid to impose Islamic law. The group has lost some ground since being driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 by a coalition of Somali and and African Union forces.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vernon Wessels at [email protected] Jon Menon