NAIROBI
– Kenyan security forces were locked in a fierce, final battle with
Somali Islamist gunmen inside an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall on
Monday as huge explosions and a barrage of heavy gunfire echoed out of
the complex.
A thick cloud of black smoke billowed out from the
Westgate mall as Kenyan officials said the 50-hour-long siege — which
has seen the gunmen massacre at least 69 people and take dozens more
hostage — was close to being resolved.
“We think the operation
will come to an end soon,” Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told
reporters camped outside the vast part Israeli-owned complex, which was
popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates.
“We are in control
of all the floors, the terrorists are running and hiding in some
stores… there is no room for escape,” he said, adding that some
hostages had been freed, but without giving specific numbers. Two
gunmen were also killed in the fighting.
The Kenyan Red Cross
said at least 63 people were recorded missing, thought to include
hostages as well as those possibly killed or still hiding. Around 200
people were wounded, officials said.
Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked
Shebab insurgents have claimed the attack, which began midday on
Saturday, when the gunmen marched into the complex, firing grenades and
automatic weapons and sending panicked shoppers fleeing.
Kenyan
army chief Julius Karangi said the gunmen had different nationalities.
Several foreign fighters, including Somalis with dual nationalities,
are members of the Shebab force.
“They are from different countries. We have sufficient intelligence this is global terrorism,” Karangi said.
Lenku denied that any of the insurgents were women.
“There are no women, all the terrorists are men. Some of them had dressed like women,” he said
Shebab
spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage warned that the hostages would “bear the
brunt of any force directed against the mujahedeen” — signalling that
hostages were being used as human shields.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed the attackers will “not get away with their despicable and beastly acts.”
“We
will punish the masterminds swiftly, and indeed very painfully,” he
declared in a televised speech to the nation on Sunday, revealing that
a family member — a nephew and his fiancee — were among the dead.
A
Kenyan security source and a Western intelligence official said Israeli
forces were also involved in the operation, along with British and US
agents.
Non-Muslims selected for execution
The Shebab
rebels said the carnage was in retaliation for Kenya’s military
intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the
Islamists.
“If you want Kenya in peace, it will not happen as
long as your boys are in our lands,” rebel spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage
said in a statement posted on an Islamist website.
Shocked
witnesses said the gunmen tried to weed out non-Muslims for execution
by interrogating people on their religion or asking them to recite the
Shahada, or Muslim profession of faith.
The dead include four
Britons including a British-Australian, two French women, two Canadians
including a diplomat, a Chinese woman, two Indians, a South Korean, a
South African and a Dutch woman, according to their governments.
Also killed was Ghanaian poet and former UN envoy Kofi Awoonor, 78, while his son was injured.
Mall worker Zipporah Wanjiru survived by hiding under a table with five other colleagues.
“They
were shooting indiscriminately, it was like a movie seeing people
sprayed with bullets like that,” she said, bursting into tears.
Smoke
rises from the Westgate mall in Nairobi on September 23, 2013. Kenyan
troops were locked in a fierce firefight with Somali militants inside
an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall in a final push to end a siege that
has left 43 dead and 200 wounded with an unknown number of hostages
still being held. Somalia’s Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels said the
carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex mall was in retaliation for
Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops
are battling the Islamists. AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZA
Security
camera footage seen by Kenya’s The Standard newspaper showed gunmen
raking toilet cubicles with a barrage of gunfire, apparently after
learning that several people were hiding inside.
Cafe waiter
Titus Alede, who leapt from the first floor of the mall to avoid being
killed, said it was a “miracle from God” that he managed to escape the
approaching gunmen.
“I remember them saying ‘you killed our people in Somalia, it is our time to pay you back’,” he said.
Other survivors said they played dead to avoid being killed.
Israeli
interests in Kenya have come under attack before, and the Westgate mall
— popular with well-to-do Kenyans, diplomats, UN workers and other
expatriates — has long been seen as a potential target.
World
powers condemned the chilling attack, which is the worst in Nairobi
since an Al-Qaeda bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 people
in 1998.
US President Barack Obama called Kenyatta offering
support “to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice”, while UN
chief Ban Ki-moon said the violence was “totally reprehensible”.
On
Monday, the International Criminal Court excused Kenyan Vice President
William Ruto from his crimes against humanity trial over deadly 2007-08
post-election violence for a week so he can deal with the attack.
Ruto’s lawyer Karim Khan called the siege “Kenya’s 9/11.”
