President Uhuru says siege of Nairobi mall is over, declares 3 day mourning period
Washington PostKenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday night declared that the four-day-long siege of an upscale mall in the capital by Islamist militants has ended with the deaths of five militants and 11 in custody. He announced three days of mourning for the more than 60 people killed in the attack, a death toll that is expected to rise with the recovery of more bodies from the mall, he said.
“As a nation, our head is bloodied but unbowed,” Kenyatta said in a televised address. “We have shamed and defeated our attackers.”
Kenyatta said that he could not confirm whether American and British citizens were among the heavily armed jihadists who stormed the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall on Saturday, carried out the massacre and seized hostages. But he promised a full accounting of what happened, adding that experts are conducting forensic tests to determine the nationalities of the assailants.
Earlier Tuesday, confusion had reigned as Kenyan officials asserted they had control over the mall, while the militants — who reportedly come from multiple countries — insisted they had the upper hand.
Sporadic gunfire and smoke appeared to counter statements by Kenyan officials that the bloody standoff was nearing an end. As the shooting continued, a parallel tussle unfolded on Twitter between the militants and the government, as each side tried to counter the other’s version of events.
The Somali-based, al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militia tweeted that it was still holding hostages, who were “looking quite disconcerted but nevertheless, alive.” Another Shabab tweet said: “Mujahideen are still holding their ground #westgate.”
But Kenyan officials offered a different account, saying they believe all hostages had been released. “We’re very near the end,” Kenya’s Interior Ministry posted on Twitter at noon.
The conflicting statements underscored the immense struggle Kenyan security forces have faced throughout the siege. The military deployed helicopters, planes and armored personnel carriers and sought help from U.S., European and Israeli security advisers.
Yet the militants, who executed a sophisticated and well-planned operation and are heavily armed, remained resilient. The mall, a labyrinthine 350,000 square-foot complex, has been an invaluable asset, affording the militants food, supplies and numerous hiding places.
At least 62 civilians have been killed, Kenya’s government says. Dozens of people reported to have been inside the mall remained missing, according to the Kenyan Red Cross. And a Kenyan government spokesman, Manoah Esipisu, confirmed that security forces were still engaged in combat with the militants Tuesday.
“One more terrorist of the Westgate siege has been gunned down, bringing the death toll of these terrorists to three,” Esipisu wrote in a tweet. Earlier government statements suggested that a total of three militants had been killed as of Monday night, raising the possibility that by Tuesday as many as four may be dead.
But al-Shabab quickly parried Esipisu’s tweet with a taunting one of its own. “None of the Mujahids is dead. . . . Everything under control,” the militia said.
By Tuesday afternoon, Kenyan authorities announced that three of its elite soldiers had been killed and eight others were hospitalized with injuries.
Kenyan government officials say they believe that between 10 and 15 assailants stormed the mall, a brazen attack in a place frequented by Westerners, tourists and Kenya’s wealthy elite.
Most were young and barked orders in English, witnesses said after escaping. One of the militants wore a white turban, while others wore black head scarves. Most were in civilian clothes, but a few donned camouflage fatigues. Some carried sophisticated machine guns, and others wielded the AK-47 rifles widely used by African insurgents.
There has been considerable speculation about the identity of the militants and how they managed to pull off the sophisticated assault and keep security forces at bay.
Al-Shabab is a Somali militia. But Gen. Julius Karangi, chief of the Kenya Defense Forces, told reporters that the militants inside the mall were “clearly a multinational collection from all over the world.” He added, “We are fighting global terrorism here.”
Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said Monday that “two or three Americans” and “one Brit” were among the perpetrators of the attack. But neither she nor Karangi offered specifics about the basis of their assertions.
In an interview with “PBS Newshour,” Mohamed said that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” inthe United States. The British jihadist was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Mohamed said.
U.S. officials said Monday that they were checking reports that some of the assailants were American, but had no definitive evidence so far.
Stepped-up operations
On Monday, Kenyan security forces, assisted by American, European and Israeli advisers, intensified operations to try and end the crisis.
Police helicopters hovered over the mall. At midday, loud explosions and sporadic bursts of gunfire could be heard emanating from the shopping center. By late afternoon, large plumes of smoke were rising from the area. A senior Interior Ministry official, Joseph Ole Lenku, said the militants had set fire to one of the mall shops, the Nakumatt supermarket, as a tactical diversion.
Many Kenyans have questioned why it has taken so long to end the siege. Senior Kenyan government officials have said that security forces were being cautious to prevent more civilian deaths. On Monday morning, a spokesman for al-Shabab reportedly threatened that hostages would be executed if security forces stormed the mall. “The mujahideen will kill the hostages if the enemies use force,” Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said in an audio statement posted online.
The death toll released by the government stood at 62 civilians, with more than 175 injured. It was the deadliest attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. An earlier figure of 69 deaths, provided by the Kenyan Red Cross, was revised downward. Sixty-three people were missing, according to the Red Cross, suggesting that the militants still held hostages inside the mall. Kenyan officials said 10 bodies had been pulled out of the mall over the previous 24 hours, but they did not give details.
Al-Shabab has said the carnage was in retaliation for Kenya sending troops to fight in Somalia, where they remain a key defense for the Western-backed Mogadishu government against the militia.
Ten people in Kenya have been detained in connection with the investigation, officials said.
Western concerns
President Obama said Monday that the United States stood with Kenya’s leadership “against this terrible outrage that’s occurred.”
“We will provide them with whatever law enforcement help that is necessary,” he said.
The U.S. government is contributing “technical support and some equipment to assist Kenyan security forces” in responding to the attack, a State Department official said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The department said American military personnel based at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi have been helping the Kenyans.
George Little, a Pentagon spokesman, said that no U.S. troops have been sent to Kenya to provide assistance.
The involvement of the United States, Israel and other countries underscores the West’s concerns about al-Shabab’s reach. Numerous foreigners have joined the militia, Arabic for “the youth.” Several dozen Americans, many of Somali origin, are among the foreign recruits, according to counterterrorism analysts.
Reports that the gunmen spoke English suggest that they were not natives of Somalia, where citizens generally speak Somali.
The militants were using “big-caliber guns,” said Frank Musungu, a Kenyan army warrant officer who was at the mall when the militants stormed it Saturday. “There was one woman among them. She had an AK-47.”
Foreigners have reached high ranks in the Somali extremist group. One senior field commander, Omar Shafik Hammami, an Alabama native who went by the name Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, starred in propaganda rap videos to attract Western recruits. He was reportedly killed this month by his comrades after a falling-out with the militia’s top leadership.
The foreign jihadists were the militia’s key link to al-Qaeda’s main body in Pakistan and have been central players in some of the militia’s most gruesome attacks. In September 2009, a Somali American from Seattle drove a truck bomb into an African Union base in Somalia, killing 21 peacekeepers.
Even though many U.S. counterterrorism officials and analysts say al-Shabab does not have the capability to strike the United States, some U.S. politicians have voiced concern. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” that he assumed that law enforcement agencies are looking at ways to prevent a similar attack in the United States.
“We know there’s probably still 15 to 20 Somali Americans who are still active over there,” King said. “The concern would be if any of them have come back to the United States and would use those abilities here in the United States.”
Details about the identities of the victims continued to trickle out Monday. They included Kofi Awoonor, a well-known Ghanaian poet, professor and former diplomat; a retired tropical-disease specialist from Peru; the president of a football club in Kenya; a Canadian diplomat; and a 33-year-old Dutch researcher who worked for the Clinton Health Access Initiative and had just earned a degree from Harvard University, according to the Associated Press.
“We lost one of our foundation’s people there, one of our health access workers who was a wonderful Dutch nurse who was in Nairobi because she was about to have a baby,” former president Bill Clinton told “PBS Newshour.” He added: “She and the baby’s father were just strolling through the mall. It’s tragic.”
The father, an Australian architect who works in Africa, also was killed in the attack, the AP reported.-
Craig Whitlock, Scott Wilson, Anne Gearan, Ernesto Londoño and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
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