Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

At least 14 people were killed Saturday in an attack on a popular hotel in the Somalia capital Mogadishu that ended with security forces going floor by floor to root out gunmen from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, according to police and medical workers.

Police said at least four gunmen were involved in the attack on the Nasa-Hablod hotel that began with a suicide car bomb explosion at the hotel's gate, the Associated Press reports.

“We have finally ended the siege. The last remaining militants were killed on the top floor,” police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said after security forces pursued the gunmen to the upper floors of the hotel, where they had set up rooftop sniper posts and threw grenades.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, a military operations spokesman for the the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, told Reuters, "We attacked the hotel which was frequented by the apostate government members."

A witness, Ali Mohamud, said the attackers randomly shot at guests. “They were shooting at everyone they could see. I escaped through the back door,” he said.

Yusuf Ali, an ambulance driver, tells the AP that he evacuated 11 people injured in the attack to hospitals. “Most of them were wounded in crossfire,” he said.

Al-Shabab has been waging a deadly insurgency across large parts of Somalia and often carries out such attacks.