Gunfire following an explosion is underway at an upscale hotel in the Somalian port city of Kismayo, 300 miles south from the capital Mogadishu, local media reported on Friday.
The attack was almost immediately claimed by the Al-Qaeda (terrorist group, banned in Russia) affiliated militants of al-Shabaab radical movement, the Garowe Online news outlet posted on Twitter.

Somalia has been engulfed in violence since the eruption of a civil war between clan-based armed groups in the early 1990s. Al-Shabaab has been staging numerous attacks across the country in an attempt to impose Sharia law.