The death toll from Somalia’s Kismayo hotel attack rose to 26 on Saturday with victims including Kenyans, Americans, a Briton, a Canadian and Tanzanians.
A presidential candidate for upcoming regional elections was also killed in the attack, carried out by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, Jubbaland President Ahmed Mohamed said in a statement.
More than 50 people were also wounded. Police in Kismayo earlier put the toll at 13.
Somalia’s security forces ended the overnight attack by the group in the southern port city after an hours-long siege.
“The operation is over. The four attackers were shot dead,” police officer Major Mohamed Abdi told Reuters news agency by telephone from Kismayo.
Al-Shabab members stormed the hotel after detonating a car bomb on Friday while local elders and legislators met to discuss approaching regional elections.
Politicians and journalists were among the dead.
“The operation was concluded at 7am… These are the prominent people. The death toll is sure to rise,” local elder Ahmed Abdulle said.
Authorities said a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into the popular Medina hotel, which was followed by a gun battle.
A journalists’ group confirmed two journalists were among the dead; Somali-Canadian Hodan Naleyah, founder of Integration TV, and Mohamed Sahal Omar, a reporter from SBC TV in Kismayo.
“We are saddened and outraged by this loss of life, and condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling massacre,” Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, secretary-general of the Federation of Somali Journalists, said in a statement.
Security Official Abdiweli Mohamed said heavily armed attackers forced their way inside the hotel, shooting as they went.
“Several gunmen entered and started shooting but the security forces responded quickly and engaged in a gunfight with the attackers inside the building,” he said.
Al-Shabab, which is trying to topple the Somali government, said it carried out the suicide attack.
“First, we targeted [the hotel] with a suicide car bomb and then armed mujahideen [fighters] stormed the hotel,” said Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabab’s military operations spokesman.
“There are many dead bodies inside the hotel, including a dead white man.”
