26 people are killed in bomb, gun attack on hotel

The death toll from a car bomb and gun attack on a hotel in Somalia rose to 26 on Saturday, officials said.

A former politician and two prominent Somali journalists were among the dead. One of the journalists was identified as Hodan Nalayeh, a well-known Canadian Somali who was lauded as a hero and an inspiration to fellow Somalis.

Three Kenyans, three Tanzanians, two Americans and a Briton also died in Friday’s attack, according to Ahmed Mohamed Islam, president of the Jubbaland region where the attack took place.

The attack in the southern port city of Kismayo targeted the Asasey Hotel, which is popular with politicians and Somali expatriates.

Al-shabab, an Islamic rebel group with links to alqaida, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group, which has killed thousands across East Africa, seeks to overthrow Somalia’s Western-backed government and has accused the president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, of being an apostate and an American “puppet.”

The attack began Friday evening when at least four al-shabab militants stormed the Asasey Hotel. Over the next 14 hours, government troops besieged the hotel compound and killed some of the attackers, officials said.

It ended Saturday morning after an all-night siege by Somali troops who shot and killed some of the attackers in the compound, officials said. Fifty-six people, including two Chinese citizens, were injured.

Iid Badal Mohamed, a former Somali ambassador to the United Nations, had been booked in the Asasey for two weeks, but relocated to another hotel just before the attack.

“I was near the hotel. The attack started with a suicide bombing, then gunmen on foot stormed the hotel,” he said in a phone interview. “They were shooting every person they saw on the spot.”

He said he believes the location was targeted because it is known to host senior politicians. Some news reports said the attack coincided with a meeting of local elders and politicians at the hotel.