A car laden with explosives has rammed into a popular hotel in Somalia, reportedly killing five students whose school bus was crossing near the scene of the terror attack.
Witnesses said a huge blast was heard in the centre of the port city of Kismayu before the gunfire by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab militant group started.
A car was deliberately crashed into the gate of the Tawakal Hotel, which is frequented by politicians and business people.
"So far there are five people dead and eight others injured, who were taken to Kismayu hospital," Farah Mohamed, a security officer told Reuters from Kismayu.
Sahra Adbi, a local journalist, wrote on Twitter: "Three school kids died and close to a dozen wounded when their school bus crossing near Tawakal hotel was caught by the explosions."
Multiple sources say students have been caught in the middle of the heavy fighting as they left school moments before the brutal attack unfolded.
The state-run Somali National Television said on Twitter that security forces were dealing with a "terrorist incident" at the Tawakal Hotel, for which al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has claimed responsibility.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operation spokesperson, said the group targeted Jubbaland region's administrators who work from the hotel.
Ironically, at the time of the attack, a meeting to discuss an anti-Al-Shabaab offensive was ongoing, Garowe Online reported.
Kismayu is the commercial capital of Jubbaland, a region of southern Somalia still partly controlled by al Shabaab.
Al Shabaab was officially driven out of Kismayu in 2012 when the city's port had been a major source of revenue for the group from taxes and levies on arms and other illegal imports.
The group is seeking to topple the central government and impose its rule based on its own strict interpretation of Islam's sharia law.
Somali security forces say they have made gains on the battlefield against al Shabaab in recent weeks while fighting alongside local self-defence groups, but the group has continued to carry out deadly raids.
The Somali government announced earlier this month that Abdullahi Yare, a key Al-Shabaab leader with a $3-million (£2.6m) bounty on his head, had been killed in an air strike.
US President Joe Biden decided in May to approve the redeployment of US troops to the east African nation.
The recently re-elected President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, said that fighting against Al-Shabab is his top priority.
In a speech to the Somali community while on a visit to the United States, he said: “We see a strong momentum against Al-Shabab and want to sustain it to defeat a group that has proven to be remorseless and [like the] mafia, which has attained economic autonomy through intimidation and the murder of innocent people.”
The news comes after a suicide attack by Al-Shabaab killed two people including a soldier in central Somalia on Wednesday.
A vehicle laden with weapons ploughed into a military checkpoint in the Hiran region said army official Abdirahman Osobow.
