| CNN | - |
Nairobi,
Kenya (CNN) -- Armed gunmen faced off with Kenyan police and soldiers
inside an upscale Nairobi shopping mall early Sunday, hours after
brazenly gunning down shoppers, diners and more.
39 killed and more carnage feared as Kenya mall attackers face off
updated 10:29 PM EDT, Sat September 21, 2013
A rescue worker helps a child
outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, September 21.
Gunmen burst into the mall and opened fire in a deadly attack. According
to a senior Kenyan government source, the gunmen took an unknown number
of hostages, and police are trying to negotiate for their release and
retake the building. Several hours after the attack, Al-Shabaab, an
al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility
for the deadly attack.
HIDE CAPTION
Photos: Kenya mall attack
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Hostages are being held in several locations, government says
- Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked militant group in Somalia, claims responsibility
- It says the attackers are "still strong"; Kenyan officials say they are isolated
- "Major operation underway," Kenyan government cryptically tweets
Around 2:30 a.m. Sunday
(6:30 p.m. ET Saturday) -- an hour after reporting five "visibly shaken"
hostages had been released -- Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre cryptically tweeted
"major operations underway." What that meant was a mystery, and it
didn't quell fears about what has happened or might happen to an unknown
number of civilians who were still unaccounted for inside.
The same agency offered
an update about three hours later stating that hostages were being held
"in several locations," adding there was "no communications as yet." By
then, government authorities had secured the mall's upper levels, though
it was not known where the attackers -- and the threat -- remained.
Hours earlier, Kenya's
president announced that 39 people, including some of his close
relatives, were confirmed dead in the attack. Two gunmen, including one
who was detained after being shot, are also dead.
Francis Kimenia,
secretary to the Cabinet, tweeted another 293 people got treatment at
three area hospitals, which "are appealing for more blood." The wounded
range in age from 2 to 78, the disaster operations center said, urging people to "remember them in your prayers."
Terrorists attack mall in Kenya
Shooting witness: We crawled under cars
Al Qaeda-linked group claims attacks
Al-Shabaab, an al
Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia with ties to Nairobi's
Eastleigh district and whose most recent attack of this scale came July 2010 in Uganda's capital, claimed
responsibility for the carnage and vowed not to negotiate with Kenyan
authorities. It claimed that "all Muslims" were escorted from the mall
before the attack, suggesting its targets were people who didn't believe
in their extreme form of Islam.
"The Mujahideen are still
strong inside #Westgate Mall and still holding their ground," the group
said late Saturday via Twitter. "All praise is due to Allah!"
Kenyan authorities,
though, insist they have the upper hand, where it's now early Sunday
morning. The last few hours of Saturday and the first few of Sunday, in
Kenya, were largely quiet outside the mall except for movement
Police tweeted that the
attackers "have been isolated and pinned down in a room by security
forces." And Joseph Ole Lenku, the national government's cabinet
secretary for interior and coordination, hinted that the worst should be
over.
"Our security forces have taken control of the situation," Lenku said.
"Attackers of Westgate
shopping mall have been isolated and pinned down in a room by security
forces in the ongoing operation," the national police said on Twitter.
Kenya's president, Uhuru
Kenyatta, blasted "the despicable perpetrators of this cowardly act
(who) hoped to intimidate, divide and cause despondency among Kenyans
and would like to (create) a closed, fearful and fractured society."
Kenya is no stranger to
terrorism, including a 1998 bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi that
left 213 dead and other attacks before and since tied to al Qaeda and
related groups.
In a televised speech
late Saturday, Kenyatta said his nation has "overcome" such attacks
before, refusing to budge from its values or relinquish his security.
And it will do so again, he promised.
"We shall hunt down the
perpetrators wherever they run to," the president said. "We shall get
them, and we shall punish them for this heinous crime.
Witness: We saw lots of blood
Kenya president: Stand together
Midday peace shattered by gunfire, blasts
"Westgate Mall lends itself a serene and safe environment away from the city centre," the mall's official website states.
That may have been true
before -- while there had been warnings, the high-end mall filled with
more than 80 stores and restaurants had never been targeted. But it
couldn't have been further from the truth Saturday.
Rattles of gunshots that
started around noon shattered any sense of normalcy among those picking
up groceries, savoring lunch and browsing through the racks at stores.
Uche Kaigwa-Okoye was
sipping coffee when he heard what first sounded like a fallen table,
then the continuing rat-a-tat of gunfire. As the gunshots became louder,
people began screaming and running for the exits.
Some went outside, only
to turn around and go back into the four-story mall after realizing
bullets were flying there as well. Kaigwa-Okoye was among them, joining
about 20 people who took shelter for about five hours in a women's
bathroom cubicle.
"They had grenades, and
it was really, really loud," he told CNN, adding that he noticed tear
gas in the corridors as well. "All of us felt like they were close."
As people texted family
and friends outside the mall, word spread that nobody could be trusted
-- and, even if the good guys could be sorted from the bad guys, the
barrage of intermittent gunfire made any escape seem futile.
Sara Head, a Washington
resident, experienced similar horror in the mall's parking garage. As
her car pulled up, she and others heard gunfire -- prompting them to
crawl underneath and sneak behind cars before getting into a stairwell.
She had company there, including two people bleeding from gunshot
wounds.
Eventually, the
stairwell lights went back on and the door to a nearby supermarket
opened, so they dashed through and past a nearby loading dock to safety.
"There was blood
throughout the supermarket," Head recalled. "... It wasn't clear if it
was OK to exit. I was short of sheep following."
Soldiers crawl under cars, copters fly overhead
By then, the sight of
Kenyan soldiers in military fatigues crawling under cars with their guns
cocked made clear that the once shiny, pristine Westgate mall had
become a war zone. The whirr of surveillance helicopters overhead drove
home the point.
Police took those
leaving the building in a straight line, arms raised in the air. They
were all taken to a secluded place for vetting to ensure they were not
attackers.
The military asked media
not to televise anything live because the gunmen might be watching
screens inside the mall and therefore take cues on their movement.
And everyone else,
except for authorities, was urged to stay away as roads and nearby
locales, including another shopping center, was closed down.
The U.N. Security
Council condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms," voicing
solidarity with Kenya while calling terrorism "one of the most serious
threats to international peace and security."
Most of the casualties
are Kenyan, authorities said. But the mall is popular with expatriates
and foreign nationals, who are among those killed and injured.
That includes two dead
French nationals, their government said. Likewise, two Canadians -- one
of them a diplomat -- died in the attack, according to Prime Minister
Stephen Harper's office.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry said there were several Americans among the injured but none
among the dead, though the wife of a foreign national working for the
U.S. Agency for International Development was killed.
"As we prepare to bring
the world's leaders at the United Nations next week," Kerry said in
reference to the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, "we are reminded again
in tragedy of our common humanity."
CNN's Faith Karimi and Greg Botelho reported
and wrote from Atlanta; Lillian Lesposo reported from Nairobi. CNN's
Michael Martinez, Chelsea Carter, Tim Lister, Nima Elbagir, Boriana
Milanova, Jamie Crawford, Stefan Simons, Karen Smith and Azadeh Ansari
contributed to this report.
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