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MOGADISHU/GAROWE, Somalia — Kenyans, Americans, a Briton and Tanzanians were among 26 people killed when Islamist gunmen stormed a hotel in the Somali port city of Kismayo, officials said on Saturday, the deadliest attack in the city since insurgents were driven out in 2012.

A car bomb exploded at the hotel in the southern port city while local elders and lawmakers were meeting on Friday night, before three gunmen stormed in, police said. Security forces took 11 hours to end the siege, they said.

The dead included a presidential candidate for August’s Jubbaland regional elections, Jubbaland state president Ahmed Mohamed Madobe said. At least two journalists and a UN agency staff member were also reported to have been killed.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman, said militants killed 30 people, while four al Shabaab fighters had also died. 

The jihadist group and government officials tend to give differing casualty figures for attacks.

Regional president Madobe said three Kenyans, one Briton, two Americans and three Tanzanians were among those killed.

“Four militants attacked the hotel. One of them was the suicide car bomber, two were shot dead and one was captured alive by Jubbaland security forces,” he said, adding that 56 people were wounded in the attack, including two Chinese.

Police had earlier said all the attackers were killed. Kismayo is the commercial capital of Jubbaland, a region still partly controlled by al Shabaab, whose fighters frequently carry out bombings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, whose troops form part of an African Union peacekeeping force.

Britain’s foreign ministry said it was in touch with local authorities for information about the Kismayo attack. A US State Department official confirmed that at least one US citizen was among the dead.

Two journalists were among the dead: Somali-Canadian Hodan Naleyah, the founder of Integration TV, and Mohamed Sahal Omar, a reporter for SBC TV in Kismayo, while Naleyah’s husband Jama Fariid was also killed, the Jubbaland president said.

“Through her work as a journalist, Hodan highlighted the community’s positive stories and contributions in Canada. She became a voice for many. We mourn her loss deeply, and all others killed in the #KismayoAttack,” Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s immigration minister, wrote on Twitter.

The Somali Journalists Syndicate said Jubbaland security personnel ordered journalists to stop filming funerals of their colleagues and beat them, injuring four reporters. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment. — AFP