Watu 69 wamekufa Kenya

Hadi sasa imethibitika kuwa watu 69 wamekufa kutokana na mashambulizi ya wanaoaminika kuwa ni wapiganaji wa kundi la Al shaabab waliovamia na kuwashambulia kwa risasi watu waliokuwa katika maduka makubwa ya Westgate jijini Nairobi nchini Kenya.

Askari wa Kenya wakishirikiana na wengine kutoka Israel tayari wameingia ndani ya jengo hilo kubwa kwenda kuwaokoa watu waliotekwa ambao hadi sasa idadi yao haijafahamika.

Mapema leo asubuhi milio ya risasi ilisikika ndani ya jengo hilo.

Taarifa kutoka ndani ya jengo hilo zinadai kuwa, idadi ya watu waliokufa huenda ikaongezeka kutokana na hali ilivyo ndani hususani miili inayokutwa kwenye sehemu mbalimbali kwenye jengo hilo.

Kenyan troops with machine guns take up position in the mall

At least 69 people are now confirmed to have been killed in an ongoing Nairobi shopping mall siege, Kenya Red Cross said on Sunday, after nine bodies were recovered.

Heavy gunfire and loud explosions were heard at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall on Monday as Kenyan troops fought Somali militants who were holding hostages after massacring at least 68 people.

Kenyan forces arrive on September 22, 2013 at the Westgate mall in Nairobi

As the stand-off entered its third day, sustained bursts of rapid gunfire erupted at dawn and lasted 15 minutes, and soldiers posted around the complex ducked for cover. This was followed by three big explosions, AFP correspondents at the scene said.

The Kenyan army said it had secured most of the upmarket, part Israeli-owned complex, while a security source said a final assault was underway against the Al Qaeda-linked Somali Shabaab rebels, believed to be pinned down in a part of the mall but using hostages as human shields.

“Our concern is to rescue all hostages alive and that is why the operation is delicate,” the Kenya Defence Forces said in a statement overnight, adding that it was trying to bring a “speedy conclusion” to the drama.

Kenyan military officers heading to Westgate

It did not say how many people were being held by the dozen-or-so attackers, who marched into the sprawling four-storey complex at midday Saturday, spraying shoppers with machine gun fire and tossing grenades.

Police sources who had entered the building on Sunday evening said they feared that death toll, now confirmed at 68, “could be much, much higher… judging from the bodies sighted inside.”

Somalia’s Shabaab 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,” Shabaab spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.

The group also issued a string of statements via Twitter, one of them claiming that Muslims in the centre had been “escorted out by the Mujahideen before beginning the attack”.

 

In an address to the nation on Sunday, 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 vowed, revealing that a family member – a nephew and his fiancée – were among the dead.

A Kenyan security source and a Western intelligence official said Israelis were involved in the operation, along with British and US agents.

 United States President Barrack Obama has made a telephone call to President Uhuru Kenyatta over Saturday’s terror attack at the Westgate Shopping Mall.

Obama offered support to Kenya as it makes efforts to bring the perpetrators of the assault to justice. President Kenyatta has already said that the perpetrators will not get away with the assault on innocent Kenyans.

“As your President, as a leader and as a Kenyan, I feel the pain of every life we have lost, and share your grief at our nation’s loss. My nephew and his fiancée are among those who died in this attack. These are young, lovely people I personally knew and loved. Many of us have lost loved ones. Let us mourn them all as one nation, and keep them always in remembrance and prayer,” mourned the Kenyan Head of State.

Capital, Daily Mail