Chief of Staff of the Kenya Defence Forces Julius Karangi (centre)
visits the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi after an attack by
Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab. Kenyan and foreign forensic
teams scoured the wreckage of a Nairobi shopping mall on Wednesday for
bodies and clues. PHOTO | AFP
Posted Friday, September 27 2013 at 12:01
In Summary
In an audio message posted on an Islamist
website, Godane threatened “more bloodshed” unless Kenya withdrew its
troops from Somalia.
Nairobi, Thursday. Kenyan and
foreign forensic teams scoured the wreckage of a Nairobi shopping mall
on Wednesday for bodies and clues after a four-day siege by Islamist
gunmen left 67 dead and dozens more missing.
Rescuers and investigators wore face masks and
some soldiers wrapped scarves around their mouths because of an
overpowering stench inside the Westgate centre, once the capital’s most
upmarket mall. A large part of the complex has collapsed after heavy
explosions and a fierce fire.
Across Kenya, flags flew at half mast at the start of three days of official mourning.
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab chief Ahmed Abdi Godane said
the Nairobi mall carnage was a “message to Westerners” who had “backed
Kenya’s invasion (of Somalia) that has spilled the blood of the Muslims
for the interest of their oil companies”.
In an audio message posted on an Islamist website,
Godane threatened “more bloodshed” unless Kenya withdrew its troops
from Somalia. Kenya invaded southern Somalia to attack Al-Shabaab bases
two years ago, and later joined the 17,700-strong African Union force
(Amisom) deployed in Somalia. The Al-Qaeda-linked group claimed on
Twitter that 137 hostages they had seized all died, figures impossible
to verify and higher than the number of people officially registered as
missing. It also accused Kenyan troops of using “chemical agents” and
explosives to end the stand-off.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an end to the 80-hour bloodbath late Tuesday, with the “immense” loss of 61 civilians and six members of the security forces.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an end to the 80-hour bloodbath late Tuesday, with the “immense” loss of 61 civilians and six members of the security forces.
Five suspected attackers were also killed, and 11
detained, officials said. Police said the death toll was provisional,
with the Kenyan Red Cross reporting 71 people missing. Interior
minister Joseph Ole Lenku said top forensic experts and investigators
from Britain, the United States, Israel, Germany, Canada and Interpol
had joined the probe. But he was unable to answer many remaining
questions over the identity of the attackers, the possible presence of a
British woman and American jihadists, and how the cell got such large
quantities of weapons and ammunation into the complex. (AFP)
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
