24 Sept 2013

'Americans and a Briton' among Kenya shopping mall attackers

Best Vidoes Ever: Kenyan special forces were still fighting on Tuesday morning what sources said were "one or two" Islamist militants inside the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.
As sporadic gunfire and an explosion were heard at dawn, the attackers were said to be isolated either inside or next to a casino on one of the upper floors.
Earlier Kenya's interior ministry said its forces were in control of the centre and that all hostages had been freed.
The government says the militants include several foreigners.
"(There are) two or three Americans and I think so far I have heard of one Brit... a woman and I think she has done this many times before,"

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told an interviewer from the US TV programme PBS Newshour.

"The Americans, from the information that we have are young men: between 18 and 19, of Somali origin or Arab origin, but who lived in the US," she added.

Officials have said that three militants have been killed. The operation against armed militants has now lasted three nights.

At least 62 people died and 175 were injured after fighters, thought to be members of Somalia's al-Shabaab movement, stormed the shopping complex on Saturday.

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Additional:


UK Banned Press TV: Kenya’s foreign minister says two or three young American men and one British woman were among the attackers who stormed a shopping mall in Nairobi.


Heavily-armed al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab militants attacked the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi on September 21, taking hostages and holding onto the mall for three days.

Some 60 people were killed in the terrorist attack.

On Monday, Kenya’s Interior Ministry announced that security forces had regained control of the mall.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said the American men were 18 to 19 years old.

“From the information we have, two or three Americans and so far I’ve heard of one Brit. That just goes to underline the global nature of this war that we are fighting,” she added.

She also claimed that the African country needs the cooperation of other governments in the fight against terrorism, “and much more with the US and the UK, because both the victims and the perpetrators came from Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United States.”

Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, however, rejected the claim that American nationals were involved in the attack, saying, the State Department had “no definitive evidence of the nationalities or the identities” of the assailants.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ben Rhodes did not rule out the likely involvement of US citizens in the assault, explaining, “US officials have seen reports coming out of al-Shabab that indicate information along those lines.”

“We do monitor very carefully and have for some time been concerned about efforts by al-Shabab to recruit Americans or US persons to come to Somalia,” Rhodes said.

The militants, the majority of whom are reportedly from Somalia, said the raid was in retaliation for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia.

Source

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