Al-Shabab carries out fresh attack in Kenya

Two Kenyan police officers have been killed in an attack on a security post near the Somali border, with the suspicion falling on the same armed group behind the deadly siege at a Nairobi mall which left scores dead.
The attack early yesterday took place in the town of Mandera. Regional police chief Charlton Mureithi said that in addition to the two police officers killed, three others were injured and 11 vehicles destroyed.

The attack came hours after the Somalia-based al-Shabab group threatened that violence would continue until Kenyan troops were withdrawn from Somalia.

The group’s leader, Ahmed Godane Shaykh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, warned the Kenyan public there was no way they could “withstand a war of attrition inside your own country”, in a statement posted on the internet late on Wednesday.

“Make your choice today and withdraw all your forces. . .” Godane said. “Otherwise be prepared for an abundance of blood that will be spilt in your country, economic downfall and displacement.”

Meanwhile, forensic experts from around the world, including the US, Britain and Germany, continued their work yesterday at Nairobi’s Westgate mall, carrying out fingerprint, DNA and ballistic analysis, said police spokesperson Gatiria Mboroki.

She said she had no details on what the experts had found so far in the bullet-scarred, scorched mall and that their work was expected to take a week.

“We don’t even know the final death toll. It might be days before we know,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reported from Nairobi. “This is a country in mourning.”

At least 18 foreigners are now known to have died after al-Shabab fighters attacked the mall last Saturday, firing from automatic weapons and throwing grenades. They took many shoppers hostage and the siege lasted several days.

In addition to those killed at the mall, another 175 people were injured, including more than 60 who remain hospitalised.

Mortuary officials in Nairobi have been preparing for a large influx of bodies still in the mall. Officials said that the shopping centre could hold dozens more bodies.

Authorities have said at least five al-Shabab attackers were killed and another 11 suspects have been taken into custody.

Washington is providing technical support and equipment to Kenyan security forces and medical responders, said US Ambassador Robert Godec.

The US is assisting the investigation to bring the attack’s organisers and perpetrators to justice, he said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Kenya yesterday buried victims of a four-day mall massacre by Islamist gunmen as international forensic and security experts scanned the rubble for bodies and clues.

Weeping mourners from multiple religions gathered for the latest funerals of the 67 victims whose bodies have so far been recovered from the wreckage of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall.

Across Kenya, flags flew at half mast for the second of three days of national mourning.

President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an end to the 80-hour bloodbath late on Tuesday, with the “immense” loss of 61 civilians and six members of the security forces. Five suspected attackers were also killed, and 11 detained, officials said.

Police said the death toll was provisional, with the Kenyan Red Cross reporting 71 people missing.

In one of many funerals, over two thousand mourners turned out Thursday morning to pay their final respects to Ruhila Adatia (31), a popular television and radio personality who was pregnant with her first child, in a joint ceremony also held for Shairoz Dossa, (44), a mother of three.

Both came from Kenya’s Ismaili Muslim community.

Shelina Manji, a friend of Adatia, said the last time they saw each other they promised to talk later.
“We never had that conversation,” she told the sombre crowd, some dabbing their eyes as tears welled up.

The front page of The Standard, one of Kenya’s main daily newspapers, simply showed a red rose and the headline, “in honour of our fallen loved ones”.

Teams of volunteer counsellors and psychologists have set up several centres, including at the main morgue in Nairobi, where “anyone who was affected by the Westgate attack can obtain counselling”, they said in a statement.

Fellow radio presenter Kamal Kaur was with Adatia at a children’s cooking contest on the mall’s rooftop parking when the attackers struck, recounting the horror as the insurgents raked the screaming crowds with bullets and hurled grenades.

“I had around 30 to 35 kids with me… and when the blast went off I tried to protect them by ordering them to get down and lie on the floor… After the blast, and screaming from the kids, the shots started coming in,” Kaur told The Standard.

Kaur, who huddled against a wall as she tried to stem the pumping blood from the neck of a little boy, said she did not see how Adatia died. But she recalled her final words, just minutes before the carnage began.

“She was telling me how she had bought something for ‘my little papa’ [her unborn baby], and I was telling her to stop buying too many things because we will have nothing else to give as a gift when it finally comes,” Kaur added. “Those were the last words I said to her.”

As Kenyans mourned, rescuers and investigators continued to search the damaged Westgate mall complex, a large section of which collapsed after heavy explosions and a fierce fire.

Thin wisps of grey smoke continued to rise from the building, apparently from where the back of the building has collapsed, with tonnes of concrete now smothering where the insurgents are believed to have made their final stand, alongside possibly multiple hostages.

Police have repeatedly called for Kenyans to be patient but many are growing frustrated, with some taking to social media to demand swift answers to a raft of questions on what brought part of the building down, the fate of the missing and the status of the investigation.

Somalia’s Shabaab chief Ahmed Abdi Godane said the Nairobi mall carnage was a “message to Westerners” who had “backed Kenya’s invasion of Somalia that has spilled the blood of the Muslims for the interest of their oil companies”.

In an audio message posted on an Islamist website, Godane threatened “more bloodshed” unless Kenya withdrew its troops.
Kenya invaded southern Somalia to attack Shebab bases two years ago, and later joined the 17 700-strong African Union force (Amisom) deployed in Somalia.

Workers at the mall were seen wearing face masks and some soldiers wrapped scarves around their mouths because of an overpowering stench inside the centre, once the capital’s most upmarket mall.

Investigators from Britain, the United States, Israel, Germany, Canada and Interpol are working in the site.

Kenya’s interior minister has said the search is an “elaborate process” and will take at least a week to complete. “Among the things that are going on now are fingerprinting, DNA identification and ballistic examinations,” Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters on Wednesday.

“We would like to urge all to enable us to answer all the questions,” Kenya police has said, a statement repeated several times on social media.

“We all want answers, we all want to know who is responsible for this brutal, cowardly and unconscionable act,” British High Commissioner Christian Turner said after visiting the site on Wednesday.

“But we now need to let the professionals do their job. This will take some time.” — AFP