On 21 Saturday September 2013 up to 15 armed gunmen stormed the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi with grenades and guns. The group has been describes as including one woman and men of “Arab extraction judging by their skin colour”. Other witnesses have said there is a mixture of dark skinned and Somali Africans.
It is claimed by witnesses such as Elijah Kamau that the militants believed to be members of the extremist al-Shabab movement were said to have warned Muslims to leave the site whilst they threw grenades to launch their ferocious attack on innocent shoppers in the popular mall.
Newspaper reports state that al-Shabaab has used Twitter to claim responsibility for the attacks stating the assault was in response to the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia following Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia in 2011 where Kenyan troops fought back jihadists from the southern Somali port city of Kismayo.
Their announcement read: “The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders,”
The message continued. “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.”
The militants have taken some 30 hostages and retreated to a supermarket in the mall to make a last stand against Kenya’s armed security forces. Several solders have been reported killed in the skirmish. The Kenyan Defence Force tweets that it has rescued ‘most’ of the hostages and taken control of the majority of the shopping centre.
The assault was the biggest single attack in Kenya since al Qaeda’s East Africa cell killing more than 200 people when they bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. The last time Al Shabaab’s committed a big attack outside Somalia was during its twin assault in nearby Uganda. In 2010, militants targeted people watching the World Cup final on television in Kampala and killed over 70 people.
Almost seventy people have been killed and over 175 people injured by the extremists.
Ruhila Adatia-Sood, Kenyan radio host (She was pregnant)
Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor, 78 (former professor at the University of Ghana)
Mbugua Mwangi and Rosemary Wahito (President Uhuru Kenyatta's nephew and his fiancée)
Rehmad Mehbub, 18
Several non-Africans have also been killed including at least three Britons, two French women, two Canadians and an American.
External Links
Dozens die as Islamic militants attack Kenyan shopping mallKenya standoff: At least 59 dead, Uhuru Kenyatta saysAt least 59 dead as militants still hold hostagesWitness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall
It is claimed by witnesses such as Elijah Kamau that the militants believed to be members of the extremist al-Shabab movement were said to have warned Muslims to leave the site whilst they threw grenades to launch their ferocious attack on innocent shoppers in the popular mall.
Newspaper reports state that al-Shabaab has used Twitter to claim responsibility for the attacks stating the assault was in response to the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia following Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia in 2011 where Kenyan troops fought back jihadists from the southern Somali port city of Kismayo.
Their announcement read: “The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders,”
The message continued. “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.”
The militants have taken some 30 hostages and retreated to a supermarket in the mall to make a last stand against Kenya’s armed security forces. Several solders have been reported killed in the skirmish. The Kenyan Defence Force tweets that it has rescued ‘most’ of the hostages and taken control of the majority of the shopping centre.
The assault was the biggest single attack in Kenya since al Qaeda’s East Africa cell killing more than 200 people when they bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. The last time Al Shabaab’s committed a big attack outside Somalia was during its twin assault in nearby Uganda. In 2010, militants targeted people watching the World Cup final on television in Kampala and killed over 70 people.
Rescue teams work amongst scenes of carnage during Westgate Massacre
Victim Count
Almost seventy people have been killed and over 175 people injured by the extremists. Ruhila Adatia-Sood, Kenyan radio host (She was pregnant)
Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor, 78 (former professor at the University of Ghana)
Mbugua Mwangi and Rosemary Wahito (President Uhuru Kenyatta's nephew and his fiancée)
Rehmad Mehbub, 18
Several non-Africans have also been killed including at least three Britons, two French women, two Canadians and an American.
External Links
Dozens die as Islamic militants attack Kenyan shopping mallKenya standoff: At least 59 dead, Uhuru Kenyatta saysAt least 59 dead as militants still hold hostagesWitness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall
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