AL-SHABAB MILITANTS ATTACK A NAIROBI LUXURY HOTEL.
Somali militants behind attack; bodies spotted
Militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kenya’s capital on Tuesday, setting off thunderous explosions and gunning down people at café tables and offices in an attack claimed by Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group. Witnesses reported seeing several bodies.
“It is terrible. What I have seen is terrible,” said Charles Njenga, who ran from a scene of blood, broken glass, burning vehicles and pillars of black smoke.
Al-Shabab — the Somalia-based group that carried out the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that left 67 people dead — claimed responsibility for the bloodshed at the DusitD2 hotel complex, which includes bars, restaurants, offices and banks and is in a well-to-do neighbourhood with many American, European and Indian expatriates.
Authorities sent special forces into the hotel to flush out the gunmen believed holed up inside. Late Tuesday night, about eight hours after the siege began, Interior Minister Fred Matian’i said that all of the buildings affected by the attack had been secured and that security forces were mopping up.
“I would like to reiterate that the situation is under control and the country is safe,” he said.
He did not say give a toll of the dead and wounded. And it was not clear how many attackers took part in the siege.
However, a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media said that bodies were seen in restaurants downstairs and in offices upstairs, but “there was no time to count the dead.”
Also, a witness who gave his name only as Ken said he saw five bodies at the entrance. He said that other people were shouting for help and “when we rushed back to try to rescue them, gunshots started coming from upstairs, and we had to duck because they were targeting us and we could see two guys shooting.”
Kenyan hospitals appealed for blood donations even as the number of wounded remained unclear.
Associated Press video from inside the hotel showed Kenyan security officers anxiously searching the building and scared workers emerging from hiding while gunfire could still be heard. Some women climbed out of windows. One man got up from the floor where he appeared to be trying to hide under a piece of wood panelling, then showed his ID badge.
As officers searched luxury fashion displays, wounded people were carried away on stretchers.