SOMALIA: On Sunday, a vehicle bombing and shooting attack on a hotel in the Somalia city of Kismayu resulted in the deaths of nine people before security forces broke the siege and killed the assailants, according to a local official.
In an interview, Jubaland’s Minister of Security, Yussuf Hussein Dhumal, said, “In the explosion, nine people, including students and civilians, were killed and 47 others were injured, some of them seriously.”
The incident happened after a vehicle carrying explosives crashed into the Tawakal Hotel’s entrance in the port city, and gunfire broke out. The militant organization Al Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the assault.
Dhumal continued, “The hotel where the explosion happened was near a school, so many students were injured.”
Many youngsters were hurt because the motel where the explosion occurred was next to a school.
According to Dhumal, security personnel killed three terrorists, and a bomb blast killed the fourth one.
A meeting to discuss how to combat al Shabaab was taking place at the hotel before the attack.
Security personnel are seen loading one of the injured into an ambulance in video footage from the Somali National Television that was broadcast on its Twitter account.
Al Shabaab, according to Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesperson for the organization’s military operation, claimed responsibility for the assault, which it claimed was directed at the hotel’s staff members who oversee the Jubbaland region.
Jubbaland, a southern Somalia region still largely under al Shabaab control, has Kismayu as its economic hub.
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