15 people including the owner of the hotel Abdirashid Ilqeyte, the former Somali military chief Abdikarim Dhagabadan, a lawmaker and attackers were killed.

According to the Somali police, four militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide bomb vests and machine guns attacked the hotel before the dawn break after a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at gate of the hotel.

The attack which was quickly claimed by the Al-Shabab group, again showed the ability of militants to stage high-profile raids even as their fighters were ousted from its largest strongholds.

Television pictures showed medical workers carrying bloodied dead bodies while survivors clambered over a wall to safety.

Despite being ousted from large swathes in south and central Somalia, Al-Shabab continues to carry out well-planned assaults in the past few years, raising questions about whether the militant group shifted tactics to embrace high-profile attacks targeting landmarks, as parts of the group's new guerrilla attacks.