A TV image grab shows an armed policeman taking position inside a
shopping mall following an attack by gunmen in Nairobi on Saturday.
Masked attackers stormed the packed upmarket shopping mall, spraying
gunfire and killing at least 69 people before holing themselves up in
the complex. PHOTO | AFP
Posted Monday, September 23 2013 at 08:32
In Summary
Sporadic gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security
officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining
attackers and end the 26 hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall.
Nairobi. Kenyan troops backed by Israeli forces
battled yesterday to end a siege in an upmarket shopping mall and free
hostages held by Somali militants in an attack that has so far killed 69
people.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security
officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining
attackers and end the 26 hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall.
“The Israelis have just entered and they are
rescuing the hostages and the injured,” a Kenyan security source told
AFP. The Israeli foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny its forces
were involved.
Somalia’s Al Qaeda-inspired Shabaab rebels said
the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation of
Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are
battling the Islamists.
Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said 69 people
were confirmed dead, while the Red Cross has estimated the number of
injured at around 200.
Lenku said there were still between 10 to 15
gunmen in the shopping centre. “We believe there are some innocent
people in the building, that is why the operation is delicate.”
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had said in a
televised address to the nation late Saturday that he had lost family
members in the attack.
“Let me make it clear. We shall hunt down the
perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish
them for this heinous crime,” he vowed.
The Westgate mall is popular with wealthy Kenyans
and expatriates, and was packed with around 1,000 shoppers when the
gunmen marched in at midday Saturday, tossed grenades and sprayed
automatic gunfire at terrified people.
Security agencies have long feared that the shopping centre could be targeted by Al Qaeda-linked groups.
The attack was the worst in Nairobi since an Al-Qaeda bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 people in 1998.
After a day and night of sometimes ferocious gun
battles, security sources said police and soldiers had finally “pinned
down” the gunmen. The Kenyan Red Cross appealed for blood donations and
authorities urged residents to steer clear of the area. “We are still
battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the
attackers on one of the floors,” said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel
Cyrus Oguna. “We hope to bring this to an end today.”
One teenage survivor recounted to AFP how he played dead to avoid being killed.
“I heard screams and gunshots all over the place. I
got scared. I tried to run down the stairs and saw someone running
towards the top, I ran back and hid behind one of the cars,” 18-year-old
Umar Ahmed said.
In the hours after the attack began, shocked
people of all ages and races could be seen running from the mall, some
clutching babies, while others crawled along walls to avoid stray
bullets.
“They spoke something that seemed like Arabic or
Somali,” said a man who escaped the mall and gave his name only as Jay.
“I saw people being executed after being asked to say something.”
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said later
yesterday that a nephew and his fiancee were among the 59 people
confirmed killed in an ongoing siege.
“I feel the pain of every life we have lost, and
share your grief at our nation’s loss,” Kenyatta said, calling his
killed relatives “young, lovely people I personally knew and loved.”
“They shall not get away with their despicable and
beastly acts,” Kenyatta said in an emotional speech to the nation. “We
will punish the masterminds swiftly and indeed very painfully.” (AFP)
More than 1,000 people have been rescued from the
mall, but between 10 to 15 attackers -- reportedly including both men
and women -- remain in the building “as well as many unarmed, badly
shaken, innocent civilians”, Kenyatta added.
Kenyan police, troops and special forces then
moved in and went shop-to-shop. Foreign security officials -- from
Israel as well as the United States and Britain -- were also seen at the
complex throughout the drama. An AFPTV reporter said she saw at least
20 people rescued from a toy shop, some of them children taken away on
stretchers.
Kenneth Kerich, who was shopping when the attack happened, described scenes of utter panic.
“I suddenly heard gunshots and saw everyone
running around so we lied down. I saw two people who were lying down and
bleeding, I think they were hit by bullets,” he said. (AFP)
“The gunmen tried to fire at my head but missed. I saw at least 50 people shot,” mall employee Sudjar Singh told AFP.
Among the dead was renowned Ghanaian poet and former UN envoy
Kofi Awoonor, 78, Ghanaian officials said, while his son was injured.
A spokesman for Shabaab said the attack was
retaliation for Kenya’s nearly two-year-old military presence in
war-torn Somalia in support of the internationally backed Mogadishu
government.
“We have warned Kenya of that attack but it
ignored (us), still forcefully holding our lands... while killing our
innocent civilians,” Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said in a
statement.
“If you want Kenya in peace, it will not happen as long as your boys are in our lands.”
The group also issued a string of statements via
Twitter, one of them claiming that Muslims in the centre had been
“escorted out by the Mujahideen before beginning the attack”.
Israeli interests in Kenya have come under attack
before. In November 2002 there were two simultaneous attacks in the
Mombasa area. A missile targeted an Israeli charter flight as it took
off from the port city’s airport, but missed.
At the same time a car packed with explosives
smashed into the Paradise hotel, the only Israeli-owned hotel in the
Mombasa area, as Israeli tourists were checking in. Ten Kenyans and
three Israelis died.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was “appalled by the brutal attack against innocent citizens” in Nairobi.
Paris confirmed two French citizens were among
those killed in what it condemned as a “cowardly” attack. Canada’s Prime
Minister Stephen Harper said two Canadians, one of them a diplomat,
were among the dead, while official Chinese news agency Xinhua said one
Chinese woman was killed and her child wounded.
Two Indians and a South Korean were also among the dead.
The United States said its citizens were
reportedly among those injured by the “despicable” act while British
Foreign Secretary William Hague said there were “undoubtedly” British
nationals caught up in the siege.
The UN Security Council condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”. (AFP)
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
