The Somalia militant group of Al-Shabaab on Tuesday staged a showcase second of its kind in Somalia killing four member of Transitional Federal Government (TFG) parliament. At least 15 people are believed to have died in the attacks, including the TFG members. The attacks took place at the Muna Hotel, a famous hotel where TFG MP’s reside mostly.

Members of Al-Shabab, disguised as government security forces, launched the suicide attacks. “It happened when two suicide bombers detonated themselves,” Abdirahman Yariisow, Somalia’s information minister, who was at the hotel, told journalists.

“The security was there, but for some reason, they managed their way in and started shooting. No one was expecting this kind of atrocity.

“This shows how al-Shabab is brutal; they never respected our call to stop the fighting for the holy month of Ramadan.”

Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage, al-Shabab’s spokesman, said fighters were starting a new war against “invaders” – an apparent reference to the 6,000 African Union peacekeepers deployed in the country to support government forces.

Government security forces and African Union peacekeeping troops, known as AMISOM, surrounded the building and engaged in an hour-long battle with the militants. Witnesses say when the gunmen ran out of ammunition, two of the men detonated explosives-laden suicide vests.

A suicide bomber killed at least 19 people, including four Somali government ministers, in an attack on a graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel in 2009

The bomber was disguised as a woman when he walked into the Shamo hotel. It is believed he was targeting the government officials who were among several hundred people gathered for a university graduation ceremony.

Four government ministers were killed, including health minister Qamar Aden Ali, education minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel, and higher education minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow.

It was the worst attack in the lawless Horn of Africa nation since June, when hardline al Shabaab rebels killed the security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide bombing at a hotel in the town of Baladwayne.

But this incident comes as the United Nations and other international organizations will return to Somalia within the next two months after an absence of more than 17 years.

Al-Shabab considers the 6,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi that prop up the U.N.-backed Somali government crusaders and invaders. The rebel group identifies itself as the defender of the Somali nation, but its interpretation of Islam is described as harsh.

The Shabab, which controls much of southern and central Somalia, have been fighting to topple Somalia’s Western-backed AU/UN Transitional Federal Government, which is protected by a strong 6,000-strong African Union force.