Topic: Kenyan Mall Attack... Gunmen Still Inside the Besieged Mall  (Read 1840 times)

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Kenyan Mall Attack... Gunmen Still Inside the Besieged Mall
« on: September 24, 2013, 09:47:37 AM »
I first heard this news on Sunday Morning through an office security mail, and just found out that the terror still seems to be ongoing.

The news:
"Gunmen launched an attack on shoppers mall on 21 September 2013 at the upscale Westgate shopping centre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. This was believed to be a terrorist attack.
 
Several people have been killed and others injured in the incident. The casualty figures are expected to rise. An unknown number of people are reportedly being held hostage in the four-storey building, which is located north-west of the city centre."
 
However, reports coming in this morning, 24 September, say the gunmen are still inside the besieged mall.

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) -- It's now day four, and the nightmare still isn't over.

No one knows how many hostages might still be trapped inside Nairobi's Westgate mall, the posh shopping center that has been littered with bullets and blood since Saturday. At least 62 people have already been killed, and that number could rise.

An explosion and gunfire were heard coming from mall on Tuesday, but was not immediately clear if the blast was a controlled explosion or part of an exchange.

Several gunmen -- including snipers -- are still inside the mall, two senior officials said. And the Kenyan Red Cross said more than 60 people are unaccounted for.

But Kenya's Interior Ministry reassured a nervous public late Monday that there was little chance of escape for any surviving Al-Shabaab gunmen. It tweeted that authorities had the upper hand at the scene.

"Taken control of all the floors. We're not here to feed the attackers with pastries but to finish and punish them," Kenyan police Inspector General David Kimaiyo said on Twitter.

While the mall remains an active crime scene, authorities have also zeroed in on an airport and border crossings. More than 10 suspects were arrested at an airport for questioning in relation to the attacks, the Interior Ministry tweeted Tuesday.

"Security at all entry and exits across the country has being heightened," the ministry said.
Gunfire echoed from the mall sporadically on Monday, sending journalists and aid workers scrambling for cover. Thick heavy smoke -- from a fire set by terrorists, according to Kenyan authorities -- billowed into the air much of the afternoon.

At least three terrorists have been killed since Saturday, the Interior Ministry said Monday. And 11 Kenyan soldiers are among the roughly 175 people wounded.

But more than 200 civilians have been rescued, the military said.

Americans involved?

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told "PBS NewsHour" that some of the attackers had come from the United States. She said they were originally from Minnesota and Missouri, PBS reported Monday.

"As you know, both the victims and the perpetrators came from Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United States," Mohamed said. "From the information that we have, two or three Americans, and I think so far I've heard of one Brit" as being among the attackers.

"The Americans, from the information we have, are young men, about between maybe 18 and 19, of Somalia origin or Arab origin," she told PBS. She offered no other specifics.
Gen. Julius Karangi, chief of Kenya Defense Forces, also said the attackers came from different countries.

"We have an idea who these people are, and they are clearly a multinational collection from all over the world," he told reporters in Nairobi. "This is not clearly a local event. We are fighting global terrorism here."
U.S. officials don't have any confirmation of Americans having been involved in the attack, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said.

Intelligence analysts are poring over electronic intercepts in an effort to verify the terror group's claims, two law enforcement sources told CNN.


 

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