People walk next to the damaged Tawakal hotel after it was attacked in the port city of Kismayo, southern Somalia, October 24, 2022. /CFP
At least 13 people, including four attackers, were killed and 47 others wounded on Sunday in a hotel attack in the southern port city of Kismayo, the commercial capital of Somalia's Jubaland state, an official said.
The security forces ended the siege following eight hours of gunfight after an explosives-laden vehicle rammed into the gate of the popular Tawakal Hotel, Yusuf Hussein Osman, security minister of Jubaland, told journalists Sunday evening.
Four attackers, including a suicide bomber, were all killed, but no soldiers were killed or wounded, Hussein said.
"The security forces also rescued several people trapped inside the hotel after the suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of the hotel," he said.
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying its fighters had targeted the Jubaland region's administrators who worked from the hotel.
"I call on all the Somali people to pray for those who were killed and those wounded in the hotel attack and prepare to eradicate terrorists from our country," said Ahmed Mohamed Islam, Jubaland's president, in a statement.