Saturday, September 21st 2013 | Online comment indicates militia group responsible |
Nairobi Police chief Benson Kibue had yesterday told The Standard on Sunday it was a terrorist attack and that there were likely no more than 10 terrorists involved.
Tweets on the HSM press indicated Nairobi was experiencing the Mogadishu and Mumbai moment, in reference to the November 2008 ordeal of 120 hostages seized by gunmen in Taj-Mahal hotel, Mumbai.
The Mumbai hostages were to be rescued to safety by a team of South African bodyguards. The overall death toll of the Mumbai attack stood at 130, with a claim of responsibility being made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.
The attack on Taj Mahal hotel became the worst in India’s commercial capital since nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in 2006.
In the case of yesterday’s Nairobi attack, reports indicated at least seven hostages were being held by the gun-men who invaded Westgate shopping mall. Red Cross Society reports showed 30 people could have been killed in the attack.
The Kenyan government has been blaming Al Shabaab and its sympathisers for a string of shootings, bombings and grenade attacks against churches and the security forces since Kenyan forces moved into Somalia to help battle the al Qaeda-linked militants two years ago. Al Shabaab has in the past threatened to launch strikes on Nairobi, East Africa’s largest commercial hub, with soft targets including nightclubs and hotels known to be popular with foreigners from Western countries.
One of the survivors of the Westgate attack, Satpal Singh, who was in another cafe on the mall’s top floor, said he ran downstairs when he heard the gunfire and was shot at near the mall’s main exit.
“A Somali guy shot at me. The guy who shot me was carrying a rifle, an AK-47,” 36-year-old Singh said.
So does the identity of the Somali gun-man lead to a possibility of the attack having been master-minded by Al Shabaab?
In October 2011, a coordinated operation between the Somalia military and the Kenya Defence Forces began against the group of insurgents in southern SomaliaThe mission was officially led by the Somalia army, with the Kenyan forces providing a support role.
Since then, a series of explosions rocked various parts of the country, bombings which were believed to have been retaliatory attacks by Al-Shabaab. In early June 2012, Kenyan forces were formally integrated into the African Mission in Somalia.
Kenya has in recent years suffered heavily in the hands of terrorists. On August 7, 1998, the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed. .
On November 28, 2002, there was a missile attack on an Israeli Plane after take off from Mombasa airport.
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