Attack in Somalia kills nine

A car bomb and a shooting at a hotel in Somalia has killed nine people.

Security forces killed the attackers at the hotel in the city of Kismayu.

Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, where a vehicle, laden with explosives, rammed the gate of the Tawakal Hotel. This was then followed by gunfire.

One attacker dies in the explosion and the other three were killed by security forces.

According to reports, a meeting was taking place at the hotel on how to fight al Shabaab. According to an al Shabaab spokesperson, adminstrators from the Jubbaland region who work at the hotel were the target of the attack.

Jubbaland is a region in the south of Somalia which is partly controlled by al Shabaab. Kismayu is the commercial capital of Jubbaland. Al Shabaab was driven out of the region in 2012. They had used the port as a source of revenue from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other imports.

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