Kenya Says All Hostages In Westgate Mall Freed

Kenya said its security forces were in control of
the Nairobi shopping mall where militants
killed at least 62 people, and police were
doing a final sweep of shops early on Tuesday
after rescuing the last hostages. An overnight silence outside the large,
upmarket Westgate mall was broken at
daybreak with a loud burst of gunfire from
inside, suggesting the complex had not yet
been fully secured. A lone military chopper
circled above. “Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor
looking for anyone left behind.
We believe all hostages have been released,”
the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter early on
Tuesday, adding his forces were “in control”
of the building. A trickle of survivors left on Monday, but the
fate of the missing was unclear four days after
a group of between 10 and 15 militants
stormed the mall, which with its rich clientele
epitomised the African consumer bonanza
that is drawing foreign investment to one of the world’s fastest growing regions. Foreign Minister Amina Mohammad said in a
US television interview that “two or three
Americans” and a British woman were among
the militants who led the attack, launched on
Saturday and claimed by Somalia’s Al Qaida-
linked al Shabaab group. Mohammad told the “PBS Newshour” show
the Americans were “young men, about
between maybe 18 and 19″ years old. They
were of Somali origin or Arab origin, and had
lived in the US, “in Minnesota and one other
place”, she said. US authorities are urgently looking into
information from the Kenyan government that
residents of Western countries, including the
United States, may have been among the
militants, US security sources said. “We do monitor very carefully and have for
some time been concerned about efforts by al
Shabaab to recruit Americans or US persons to
come to Somalia,” White House deputy
national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. He told reporters travelling with US President
Barack Obama to the United Nations in New
York that he had no direct information that
Americans had participated in the attack. Obama offered US support, saying he believed
Kenya – the scene of one of al Qaeda’s first
major attacks, in 1998, and a neighbour of
chaotic Somalia – would continue to be a
regional pillar of stability. Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, said
the United States stood with Kenyans against
“this terrible outrage.” [Reuters]