A car bomb and shooting attack on a hotel in the Somali city of Kismayu killed nine people on Sunday before security forces ended the siege at the hotel and killed the attackers, a regional official said.
Security officers killed three of the attackers and a fourth died in the bomb blast, said Yussuf Hussein Dhumal, security minister for Jubbaland. Gunfire erupted after the explosives-laden vehicle rammed into the gate of the port city's Tawakal Hotel. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group said it had carried out the attack.
“In the explosion, nine people including students and civilians were killed and 47 others were injured, some of them seriously,” Dhumal said.
“The hotel where the explosion happened was near a school so many students were injured.”
A car laden with explosives rammed the gate of the hotel and was followed by an attack claimed by the al-Shabab armed group.
The port city is the latest to be hit following a resurgence of bloody attacks in recent months by the al-Qaeda-linked organisation, which has mainly targeted the capital Mogadishu and central Somalia.
Al-Shabaab who claimed responsibility said members of the federal government of Jubaland, where Kismayo is located, were meeting in the hotel at the time.
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