MOGADISHU/GAROWE: Kenyans, Americans, a Briton and Tanzanians were among 27 people killed and 56 injured when Islamist gunmen stormed a hotel in the Somali port city of Kismayo, officials said on Saturday, the deadliest attack in the city since insurgents were driven out in 2012. Al Shabaab, an Islamic terrorist group linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack that lasted more than 14 hours.
The assault on the Asasey hotel in the Somali port of Kismayo began with a suicide bomber ramming a car packed with explosives and continued with a long gun battle, Somalia’s Minister for Planning and Development Aden Ibrahim Aw Hirshi said Saturday.
Fourteen people were airlifted to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, for treatment, Aw Hirshi said. The dead included a presidential candidate for August’s Jubbaland regional elections, Jubbaland state president Ahmed Mohamed Madobe said. At least two journalists and a U.N. agency staff member were also reported to have been killed.
Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab, which is trying to topple Somalia’s weak, U.N.-backed government. Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman, said militants killed 30 people, while four al Shabaab fighters had also died. (Agencies)
Comment