Mogadishu, July 13 (RHC)-- A car bomb went off on Friday at a hotel in Somalia’s port city of Kismayu where local elders and lawmakers had been discussing an upcoming regional election and was followed by gunfire.
The police said that the death toll surpassed 26, including two journalists and a presidential candidate for the upcoming elections, two journalists and a U.N. agency staff member.
The militant Islamist group al Shabaab, which is trying to topple Somalia’s central government, claimed responsibility for the attack. It said its fighters had battled their way into the hotel after a suicide car bomb attack.
