26 dead, 56 injured in attack on Somali hotel: Official

At least 26 people, including many foreigners, were killed and 56 injured in a suicide bomb and gun attack claimed by Al-Shabaab militants on a popular hotel in southern Somalia, a top regional official said Saturday.

“Twenty-six people were killed in the attack and fifty-six others wounded, among those killed are... foreign nationals three Kenyans, one Canadian, one British, two Americans, and three Tanzanians. There are also two wounded Chinese citizens,” regional president Ahmed Mohamed Islam told a news conference.

Authorities said a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into the popular Medina hotel in the southern port town of Kismayo before several heavily armed gunmen forced their way inside, shooting as they went.

The attack is the latest in a long line of bombing and assaults claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked group.

“We have confirmed the death of 26 people including a former local administration minister and a lawmaker,” said Abdi Dhuhul, a security official.

Witnesses said among those killed were a well-known social media activist, her husband and a local journalist.

“The blast rocked the popular Medina hotel formerly known as Cascasey which is located in downtown Kismayo,” said security official Abdiweli Mohamed.

“Several gunmen entered and started shooting but the security forces responded quickly and engaged in a gunfight with the terrorists inside the building,” he added.

“The blast was very big,” said witness Hussein Muktar.

“There is chaos inside, I saw several dead bodies carried from the scene and people are fleeing from the nearby buildings,” Muktar said.

“The relatives of local journalist Mohamed Sahal confirmed his death and I’m getting that social media activist Hodan Naleyeh and her husband also died in the blast,” another witness, Ahmed Farhan, said.

The Somali journalists’ union SJS confirmed the reporters’ deaths. “It is a very sad day for Somalian journalists,” the union’s secretary-general Ahmed Mumin said in a statement.

Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

“Mujahidin fighters carried out a martyrdom attack on one of the hotels accommodating the apostate officials of the Jubaland administration,” the group said, referring to an autonomous southern zone in the troubled country whose main city is Kismayo.

According to several sources, most of those staying in the hotel were politicians and traders ahead of upcoming regional elections.

Shabaab fighters have fought for more than a decade to topple the Somali government.

The militant group emerged from Islamic Courts that once controlled central and southern Somalia and are variously estimated to number between 5,000 and 9,000 men.

In 2010 the Shabaab declared their allegiance to Al-Qaeda. In 2011, they fled positions they once held in Mogadishu, and have since lost many strongholds.