At least one American among the dead when terrorists storm Somalia hotel

The U.S. State Department confirmed at least one American was among the dead and said they are working with local authorities to determine if any other U.S. citizens were affected.Ahmed Madobe, the president of Jubbaland regional state which controls Kismayo, said earlier Saturday there were two Americans among the dead, along with three Kenyans, three Tanzanians and a British citizen. A local politician and a Canadian-Somali journalist were also among the dead.
Fifty-six people were injured, officials said. At least four al-Shabaab assailants attacked the Asasey Hotel Friday evening, beginning with a suicide car bomb at the entrance gate and followed by an assault by gunmen who stormed the hotel, which is frequented by politicians and lawmakers. The attack lasted more than 14 hours before troops shot dead all attackers inside the hotel compound, Col. Abdiqadir Nur, a local police officer, told The Associated Press.”There is chaos inside, I saw several dead bodies carried from the scene and people are fleeing from the nearby buildings,” one witness, Hussein Muktar, told BBC News during the attack.Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, died in the attack, Mogadishu-based independent radio station Radio Dalsan confirmed to AP.  “I’m absolutely devastated by the news of the death of our dear sister Hodan Nalayeh and her husband in a terrorist attack in Somalia today. What a loss to us. Her beautiful spirit shined through her work and the way she treated people,” Omar Suleiman, a Texas-based imam who knew the victim, wrote on social media.  Nalayeh was born in Somalia in 1976, but spent most of her life in Canada, first in Alberta and then in Toronto. She founded Integration TV, an international web-based video production company aimed at Somali viewers around the world. She was the first Somali woman media owner in the world.