Investigators probe shopping mall slaughter

Investigators have begun combing through the wreckage of a Kenyan shopping mall where more than 70 people died in a four-day terrorist stand-off.
A street-seller makes floral wreaths outside the mortuary in NairobiA street-seller makes floral wreaths outside the mortuary in Nairobi
A street-seller makes floral wreaths outside the mortuary in Nairobi

Officials have said the death toll could rise as more bodies are found in the rubble of the Nairobi mall, where three floors collapsed in the final stages of the siege.

A Scotland Yard team of forensic experts is in the Kenyan capital to assist with the inquiry, along with others from the United States and Israel.

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Government spokesman Manoah Esipisu said there were known to be at least eight bodies of civilians buried in the debris of the Westgate complex and there could be a number of terrorists as well.

“The mall is sealed off. It is a crime scene,” he said.

At least 18 foreigners were killed, including six Britons, citizens from France, Canada, Trinidad, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China, when the militants entered the mall on Saturday, slaughtering men, women and children with assault rifles and grenades.

Interrogations are continuing of the 11 suspects held by the Kenyan authorities in connection with the attack which Somali Islamist group al-Shabab have claimed responsibility for.

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud last night warned attacks may become more frequent as al-Shabab attempts to reassert its dwindling power-base.

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He said: “Some people sometimes mix the issues that Shabab want an Islamic state in Somalia – that’s not true. Shabab want a unified (one) state all over the world.

“They do not believe in borders, they do not believe in sovereignty, so their theme is global, it’s not even regional.”

He warned: “They may do this act again and again.

“The act is of a dying organisation. You see Shabab now they control remote parts of Somalia, where they are still using as their training territory, where they are still using as a bomb factory, where they still have in the training centre special units that brainwash the young people from within Somalia, out of Somalia. So these types of things will continue.”

Mr Mohamoud denied it was a uniquely Somali problem saying the group were “international criminals”.

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The Foreign Office said a British national reportedly arrested at Jomo Kenyatta Airport on Monday as he tried to leave the country was not being linked to the attack.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court in the Hague has said it is prepared to work with Kenya to bring the attackers to justice.

Sporadic bursts of gunfire could still be heard from the mall yesterday although Mr Esipisu said the terrorist resistance was ended and the shooting was from Kenyan troops.

“During sanitisation, once you take control of the place, if you go to a room where you haven’t visited before you shoot first to make sure you aren’t walking into an ambush,” he said. “But there hasn’t been any gunfire from the terrorists for more than 36 hours.”

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At least 61 civilians and six members of the Kenyan security forces died in the attack. The Kenyan authorities have said five terrorists are also known to have been killed.

Forensic experts are working to establish the identities of the militants amid suggestions they could include a British woman and two or three American nationals.

There has been speculation the woman could be British terror suspect Samantha Lewthwaite, the so-called ‘White Widow’ who was married to July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay. She is known to be in East Africa and is wanted by Kenyan police over alleged links to a terrorist cell that planned to bomb the country’s coast.

Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said it was still not known whether there were any Britons or Americans among the al Qaida-linked militants or whether any of them was a woman.

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A Cambridge graduate who lost his wife in the terror attack said he was “devastated and heartbroken by the sudden loss”.

Briton Niall Saville, an economic development consultant from Lincolnshire, was wounded in the siege. Mr Saville, who was shot in the shoulder, lost his South Korean wife Moon Hee Kang after suffering grenade wounds sustained during the attack.

In a joint statement, the Saville and Kang families said: “The Saville and Kang families are devastated and heartbroken by the sudden loss of Moon Hee.

“Moon Hee was a bright, loving, kind and genuine person who will be greatly missed.”

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