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A suicide bomber drove a car containing explosives into the Asasey hotel in the port of Kismayo while August' regional elections were being discussed, before gunmen then stormed the building. Kenyans, Americans, and Tanzanians are also among the dead, Jubbaland region's president Mohamed said today. He added at least 56 people were injured, including two Chinese citizens.

He said: "Among the dead was also a Jubbaland presidential candidate named Shuuriye. "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." At least two journalists and a U.N. agency staff member were also reported to have been killed. Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

A man passes in front of the rubble of the Medina hotel of Kismayo after the attack

The attack took place in the port town of Kismayo

Police said earlier all the attackers had been killed. The Somalia office of the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration also said on Twitter one of its local staff members, Abdifatah Mohamed, was among those killed. SADO Somalia, a local non-governmental organisation, wrote on Twitter its executive director Abdullahi Isse Abdulle had been killed. A journalists' group had confirmed on Friday that two journalists were among the dead, inclding Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Naleyah, the founder of Integration TV, and Mohamed Sahal Omar, reporter of SBC TV in Kismayu. Jubbaland president Mohamed said Jama Fariid, Naleyah's husband, had also been killed.

At least 56 people were also wounded in the attack

The dead included a presidential candidate for August's regional elections