Related News
Israeli agents help corner militants after mall attack
Print Edition
Kenyan troops backed by Israeli agents yesterday cornered Somali militants holding hostages inside a Nairobi shopping mall in a terrifying siege that has left at least 59 people dead.
Sporadic gunfire rang out as Kenyan security officials said they were trying to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the bloodbath at the upmarket Westgate mall, with the standoff well into a second day.
“The criminals are now all located in one place within the building. We have as good a chance to successfully neutralize the terrorists as we can hope for,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a speech to the nation.
Kenyatta, who called for patience, said he had received “numerous offers of assistance from friendly countries” but that for now it remained a Kenyan operation.
However, a Kenyan security source confirmed that Israelis “are rescuing the hostages and the injured.” The Israeli foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny its forces were involved.
Terrified witnesses recounted scenes of horror as the masked gunmen tossed grenades and sprayed automatic gunfire in the packed center in a brazen attack around midday on Saturday, sending panicked shoppers fleeing for their lives.
Kenyatta said 59 people were confirmed dead, while the Red Cross has estimated the number of injured at around 200, with 49 others missing in the more than 30-hour-siege.
Somalia’s al-Qaida-inspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the partly Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.
“They shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts,” Kenyatta said in an emotional speech. “We will punish the masterminds swiftly, and indeed very painfully.”
More than 1,000 people have been rescued, but between 10 to 15 attackers — reportedly both men and women — are holding out in the multi-story complex “as well as many unarmed, badly shaken, innocent civilians,” Kenyatta said.
Foreigners killed
Kenyatta said a nephew and his fiancee were among those killed.
The dead also included three Britons, two French citizens, two Canadians including a diplomat, a Chinese woman, two Indians, a South Korean, a South African and a Dutch woman.
Also killed was Ghanaian poet and former UN envoy Kofi Awoonor, 78, while his son was injured.
The attack, the worst in Nairobi since an al-Qaida bombing at the US Embassy killed more than 200 people in 1998, was condemned by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who called it “totally reprehensible.”
“We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the attackers on one of the floors,” said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna.
Mall worker Zipporah Wanjiru, who emerged from the ordeal alive but in a state of shock, said she hid 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. “I have never witnessed this in my life. Only God can heal us and our country.”
Cafe waiter Titus Alede, who risked his life and leapt from the first floor of the mall, said it was a “miracle from God” that he managed to escape the approaching gunmen.
“I was serving a client and these men came. They were not after money as they were shooting people without asking for anything. I remember them saying ‘you killed our people in Somalia, it is our time to pay you back’,” he said.
One teenage survivor told how he played dead to avoid being killed. “I heard screams and gunshots all over the place. I got scared... (and) hid behind one of the cars,” said 18-year-old Umar Ahmed.
In the hours after the attack began, shocked people of all ages and races could be seen running from the mall, some clutching babies, while others crawled along walls to avoid stray bullets.
Kenyan police, troops and special forces then moved in and went shop-to-shop.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
