|
| Armed police leave after entering the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013. Gunmen threw grenades and opened fire Saturday, killing at least 22 people in an attack targeting non-Muslims at an upscale mall in Kenya's capital that was hosting a children's day event, a Red Cross official and witnesses said. |
NAIROBI, Kenya
(AP) -- Kenya's president says that 39 people have been killed and
more than 150 injured by armed terrorists who attacked an upscale mall
in Nairobi.
President Uhuru Kenyatta says he
lost "very close family members" in the attack carried out by
"despicable perpetrators" of a cowardly act.
Kenyatta
said that hundreds of people were safely evacuated from the mall. He
said Kenyans courage and sympathy saved lives and reassured countless
people.
He said security forces were
responding to the attack. He called it a delicate operation and said a
top priority was to safeguard the lives of those still being held
hostage.
Al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Terrified
shoppers huddled in back hallways and prayed they would not be found by
the Islamic extremist gunmen lobbing grenades and firing assault rifles
inside Nairobi's top mall Saturday. When the coast was thought to be
clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men
sprinted out of the four-story mall.
At least
30 people were killed in the assault, with fears the toll could rise
further, said Kenya Red Cross official Abbas Gullet.
The
al-Qaida-linked gunmen asked the victims they had cornered if they were
Muslim: If the answer was yes, several witnesses said, those people
were free to go. The non-Muslims were not.
Somalia's
Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility and said the
attack was retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 push into Somalia. The
rebels threatened more attacks.
Foreigners are
expected to be among the casualties. There are reports of American
citizens injured in the attack but the United States State Department
said it had no further details.
As night fell
in Kenya's capital, hostages remained inside the mall, but officials
didn't or couldn't say how many. Two contingents of army special forces
troops had moved inside as the stand-off stretched into its ninth hour.
Police
and military surrounded the huge shopping complex as helicopters buzzed
overhead. An Associated Press reporter said he saw a wounded Kenyan
soldier put into an ambulance at nightfall, an indication, perhaps, of a
continuing shoot-out inside.
Witnesses said
at least five gunmen - including at least one woman - first attacked an
outdoor cafe at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping center
that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The mall's ownership is
Israeli, and security experts have long said the structure made an
attractive terrorist target.
The attack began
shortly after noon with bursts of gunfire and grenades. Shoppers -
expatriates and rich Kenyans - fled in any direction that might be safe:
into back corners of stores, back service hallways and bank vaults.
Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out of the mall as
undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were moved out in
shopping carts.
"We started by hearing
gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We
took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them
shoot," said Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, the restaurant with
shady outdoor seating.
Frank Mugungu, an
off-duty army sergeant major, said he saw four male attackers and one
female attacker. "One was Somali. The others were black," he said.
Al-Shabab,
on its Twitter feed, said that it has many times warned Kenya's
government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia "would have
severe consequences." The group claimed that its gunmen had killed 100
people, but its assertions are often exaggerated.
"The
attack at (hash)WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what
Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders,"
al-Shabab said. Another tweet said: "For long we have waged war against
the Kenyans in our land, now it's time to shift the battleground and
take the war to their land (hash)Westgate."
Al-Shabab
threatened in late 2011 to unleash a large-scale attack in Nairobi.
Kenya has seen a regular spate of grenade attacks since then but never
such a large terrorist assault.
Nairobi's
mortuary superintendent, Sammy Nyongesa Jacob, said Africans, Asians and
Caucasians were among the bodies brought to the mortuary.
The
U.S. State Department condemned "this senseless act of violence that
has resulted in death and injury for many innocent men, women, and
children."
The U.S. embassy said it was in
contact with local authorities and offered assistance. Some British
security personnel assisted in the response.
The
gunmen told hostages that non-Muslims would be targeted, said Elijah
Kamau, who was at the mall at the time of the midday attack.
"The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted," he said.
Jay
Patel, who sought cover on an upper floor in the mall when shooting
began, said that when he looked out of a window onto the upper parking
deck of the mall he saw the gunmen with a group of people. Patel said
that as the attackers were talking, some of the people stood up and left
and the others were shot.
The attack was
carried out by terrorists, said police chief Benson Kibue. He did not
specify a group. He said it was likely that no more than 10 attackers
were involved.
Somalia's president - the
leader of a country familiar with terrorist attacks - said his country
knows "only too well the human costs of violence like this" as he
extended prayers to those in Kenya.
"These
heartless acts against defenseless civilians, including innocent
children, are beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated. We stand shoulder
to shoulder with Kenya in its time of grief for these lives lost and
the many injured," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.
The
gunmen carried AK-47s and wore vests with hand grenades on them, said
Manish Turohit, 18, who hid in a parking garage for two hours.
"They
just came in and threw a grenade. We were running and they opened fire.
They were shouting and firing," he said after marching out of the mall
in a line of 15 people who all held their hands in the air.
A
local hospital was overwhelmed with the number of wounded being brought
in hours after the attack, so they had to divert them to a second
facility. Dozens of people were wounded. Officials said Kenyans turned
out in droves to donate blood.
The United
Nations secretary-general's office said that Ban Ki-moon has spoken with
President Uhuru Kenyatta and expressed his concern. British Prime
Minister David Cameron also called Kenyatta and offered assistance.
Kenyan
authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks targeting
public spaces. Kenyan police said in September 2012 they disrupted a
major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two
people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition.
Anti-terror
Police Unit boss Boniface Mwaniki said vests found were similar to
those used in attacks that killed 76 people in Uganda who gathered to
watch the soccer World Cup finals on TV in July 2010.
Al-Shabab claimed
responsibility for those bombings, saying the attack was in retaliation
for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission
in Somalia.
