Extremists attack hotel in Nairobi
Al-Shabab group claims responsibility
Extremists launched a deadly attack on a luxury hotel in Kenya’s capital Tuesday, sending people fleeing in panic as explosions and heavy gunfire reverberated through the complex. A witness said he saw five bodies at the entrance alone.
Al-Shabab — the Somaliabased Islamic group that carried out the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that left 67 people dead — claimed responsibility.
“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.
The co-ordinated assault began with an explosion that targeted three vehicles outside a bank, and a suicide bombing in the hotel lobby that severely wounded a number of guests, said Kenya’s national police chief, Joseph Boinnet.
Survivors reported hearing a shattering blast and saw people mowed down by gunmen as they sat at a cafe. Victims were left lying on tables, bleeding.
“We were changing our shifts, and that is when I heard a loud blast and people were screaming,” said Enoch Kibet, who works as a cleaner at the cafe and managed to crawl out a basement gate. “I couldn’t believe I was alive. The blast was so loud and shook the whole complex.”
Authorities sent special forces into the hotel to flush out the gunmen believed holed up inside.
Well after nightfall, more than five hours after the attack began, Boinnet said the operation was still going on.
It was not clear how many attackers laid siege to the complex, which includes the DusitD2 hotel, along with bars, restaurants, banks and offices and is in a wellto-do neighbourhood with large numbers of American, European and Indian expatriates.
Boinnet did not disclose the number of dead.
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.”