12 dead as gunmen storm Somali hotel

International Desk: At least 12 people including a prominent Canadian-Somali journalist have been killed in an attack on a hotel in southern Somalia.

A suicide bomber rammed a car containing explosives into the Asasey hotel in the port of Kismayo, and gunmen then stormed the building.

Journalist Hodan Naleyah and her husband are thought to be among the dead.
Islamist group al-Shabab has claimed the attack.

Regional politicians and clan elders were inside the hotel discussing a forthcoming regional election at the time of the attack.

Witnesses said they heard gunfire inside the hotel soon after the car bomb went off.

Authorities later said the attack was over, with four gunmen killed.

Local media outlets and a Somali journalists association said Nalayeh, 43, and her husband Farid were among the dead.

Nalayeh founded the media platform Integration TV to tell stories about life in Somalia and in the Somali diaspora.

Recent episodes had focused on Somalia's female entrepreneurs and things to do in the city of Las Anod.

She moved to Canada with her family when she was six years old and went on to become a figurehead of the Somali community there. But the mother of two had recently returned to Somalia.

risingbd/July 13, 2019/Mukul