Kenyan President Says Siege of Nairobi Mall Is Over, Declares Mourning Period for the Dead

Nairobi, Sep 25, 2013 (SDN) -Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared Tuesday night that the four-day-long siege of an upscale mall in the capital by Islamist militants has ended with the deaths of five attackers and 11 in custody. He announced three days of mourning for the more than 60 people killed in the attack, a death toll that he said is expected to rise with the recovery of more bodies from the mall. “As a nation, our head is bloodied but unbowed,” Kenyatta said in a televised address. “We have ashamed and defeated our attackers.”

Kenyatta said that he could not confirm reports by Kenya’s foreign minister that American and British citizens were among the heavily armed jihadists who stormed the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall on Saturday, massacred dozens of people 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.

Sixty-one civilians and six members of the security forces were killed in the bloodshed, Kenyatta said, reducing the government’s earlier official death toll of 62 civilians. But he added that bodies were still trapped under the rubble left after three floors of the mall collapsed during the tail end of the operation. The Kenyan Red Cross said that as many as 65 civilians reported to have been inside the mall remain missing.

It was not clear late Tuesday whether the security operation was completely over, with government officials saying that security forces were still combing the mall for any explosives or booby traps left by the militants. Also unknown was whether any of the militants had escaped during the siege and were now at large in Nairobi. Most analysts contend that the sophisticated, well-planned siege could not have taken place without a network of accomplices and financiers inside Kenya.

“These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons, wherever they are,” Kenyatta said.

Earlier in the day, confusion had reigned as Kenyan officials asserted that they had control over the mall, while the militants — who reportedly come from multiple countries — had insisted they had the upper hand.

A parallel tussle had 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 earlier Tuesday that it was still holding hostages, who were “looking quite disconcerted but nevertheless, alive.” Another earlier al-Shabab tweet said: “Mujahideen are still holding their ground #westgate.”

But Kenyan officials offered a different account, saying they believed that 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 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 remained resilient throughout their siege. The mall, a labyrinthine 350,000-square-foot complex, proved an invaluable asset, affording the militants food, supplies and numerous hiding places.

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” in the 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 U.S., European and Israeli advisers, intensified operations in their efforts to 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 wondered why it was taking so long to end the siege. Senior Kenyan government officials had said that security forces were being cautious to prevent more civilian deaths. On Monday morning, a spokesman for al-Shabab reportedly had 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.

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. 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.

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 soccer 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.

Source: Washingtonpost