Bodies have been retrieved from Kenya’s Westgate mall following a brutal siege by Islamist gunmen, police said yesterday, as the extremists warned “rivers of blood” would flow in fresh attacks.
Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Shebaab, who claimed
responsibility for the attack, threatened yesterday to step up militant
attacks against Kenya, after Nairobi refused to pull troops out of
Somalia.
“We will strike Kenyans where it hurts the
most, turn their cities into graveyards and rivers of blood will flow in
Nairobi,” the Shebaab said in a statement.
“The Kenyan government’s decision to keep its
invading force in Somalia is an indication that they haven’t yet learnt
any valuable lessons from the Westgate attacks,” the extremists added,
warning that Kenya was “inviting unprecedented levels of insecurity,
bloodshed and destruction.”
Part of the mall’s rooftop carpark collapsed
after explosions and a fierce fire, leaving the key area where the
insurgents are understood to have made their final stand—along with
possible hostages—buried under tonnes of concrete slabs and rubble.
As many as nine bodies have been retrieved from
the charred rubble of the mall, some badly damaged in the intense fire
that gutted part of the complex.
“Some of the bodies are not recognisable and
need DNA testing to get them properly identified, some are badly
damaged,” a senior police source said.
It was not immediately clear if the retrieved
bodies were already included in the official toll of 67 — including 61
civilians and six Kenyan troops—or if they could be among the 39 people
listed as missing by the Red Cross.
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