Somali police arrest 9 suspects in Mogadishu

Nine suspected Al-Shabaab militants were arrested on Friday by police in hotels located in a busy market in Mogadishu, police sources said on Saturday.

The nine, whom police said they have been following for close to a month now, were hiding in hotels which the police authorities also closed down for reasons they were abetting crime by giving residence to suspected militants.

"We have been tracking this people for almost a month now and today our security forces located and captured them in a hotel in Kismayo and two hotels in Bakara market," said Security Ministry spokesman Mohamed Yusuf.

Yusuf warned hotel owners in the city against harboring or hiring suspected Al-Shabaab members, failure to which they will be charged and their businesses closed down.

Police did not disclose the identity of the suspected militants, but said they were senior Al-Shabaab fighters.

The arrest came a few days after the government declared a 250, 000 U.S. dollar bounty for information leading to the capture of Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Diriye.