A car loaded with explosives hit the gate of a hotel in the center of Somalia’s port city of Kismayo, followed by shooting, killing at least three people.
The state-run Somali National Television said on Twitter that security forces were dealing with a “terrorist incident” at the hotel.
“There is a blast at Tawakal Hotel and there is gunfire being heard,” Mohamed Nur, a police captain, told Reuters from Kismayo.
Farah Mohamed, a security officer told Reuters news agency that in addition to the three deaths eight people were injured and taken to Kismayo hospital. Witnesses said a huge blast was heard before the gunfire started.
“The security forces have besieged the scene,” Farah Ali, a shopkeeper in Kismayo, told Reuters. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
Journalist Jama Nur Ahmed from Mogadishu, quoting an official, told Al Jazeera that an “exchange of fire” was still ongoing between security forces and fighters.
Kismayo is the commercial capital of Jubbaland, a region of southern Somalia still partly controlled by the armed group al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab was driven out of Kismayo in 2012. The city’s port had been a major source of revenue for the group from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports.
In 2019, a similar attack at another hotel in Kismayo killed at least 26 people.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected in May, has pledged to defeat al-Shabab after countless deadly attacks.
