Two Indians, including an eight-year-old boy, were among at least 59 people killed, and nearly 200 injured as heavily armed Somali Islamist militants, holding about 30 hostages at an upscale shopping mall, Westgate, in Nairobi, continued fierce fight with Kenyan soldiers for the second consecutive day on Sunday.
Four Indians, including two women and a girl, were injured in the brazen terror attack by Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group as Israeli forces reportedly joined Kenyan soldiers on Sunday in their bloody battle to wrest control of the part Israeli-owned Westgate centre.
The dead Indians have been identified as 40-year-old Sridhar Natarajan, employee of a local pharmaceutical firm and Master Paramshu Jain, son of a manager of the local Bank of Baroda branch. The injured Indians are Sridhar Natarajan’s wife Manjula Sridhar, Paramshu Jain’s mother Mukta Jain and 12-year-old Poorvi Jain and Natarajan Ramachandran, an employee of Flamingo Duty Free, Nairobi.
“The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured,” the source told AFP on condition he not be named.Al-Shabab 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”.
There were conflicting reports about the number of militants with a Minister saying there were 10 to 15 heavily armed men while some of the witnesses said they had seen four men in black, their heads covered in scarves.
Kenyan Government and Western diplomatic sources said the militants were holding about 30 hostages inside the mall. “We still have hostages in the mall, and this makes the operation delicate. We have 59 people who have been killed so far,” Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Ole lenku said. Heavy gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the 24-hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall.
Among the dead was renowned Ghanaian poet and statesmen Kofi Awoonor, 78. Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said in a statement: “I am shocked to hear the death of Prof Kofi Awoonor in Nairobi mall terrorist attack. Such a sad twist of fate..” Awoonor was killed while shopping with his son in the mall, Ghana’s deputy information minister Felix Kwakye Ofosu said.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation late Saturday that he had lost family members in the attack. “let me make it clear. We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime,” he vowed.
A spokesman for Shabaab said the attack was retaliation for Kenya’s nearly two-year-old military presence in war-torn Somalia in support of the internationally backed Mogadishu government. “We have warned Kenya of that attack but it ignored (us), still forcefully holding our lands ... while killing our innocent civilians,” Shabaab spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.
A Pakistani-origin man is believed to be the security and training chief of Al-Qaeda linked Shabab group that carried out the horrific attack at an upscale Kenyan mall killing at least 59 people. Abu Musa Mombasa, a Pakistani citizen, serves as Shabab’s chief of security and training, the long War Journal had said in a 2010 report.