Kenyan troops in control of shopping mall
Kenyan troops are “in control” of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, the Kenyan interior ministry says.
“We’re in control of Westgate,” the ministry said in a post on Twitter, some 60 hours after Islamist gunmen stormed the complex and massacred at least 62 people.
“Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor looking for anyone left behind. We believe all hostages have been released,” the ministry said on Monday.
READ: Tributes flow for Australian architect and his partner, killed in the attack.
Earlier, the interior ministry confirmed the deaths of three of the estimated 10 to 15 al-Shabab militants.
The ministry said authorities detained and were questioning 10 people in relation to the attack, even as military, police and special forces were still working to bring an end to the siege of the four-storey building.
Loud explosions and sustained gunfire were heard several times during Monday in the upmarket Westgate shopping centre, and black smoke continued to billow in the evening from a blaze that authorities said was started by the attackers.
Spokesmen for the Somali al-Shabab militia claimed responsibility for the attack and said there would be no negotiations with the government.
Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, an al-Shabab leader, told a radio station in Somalia that the remaining attackers would fight to the death, calling the massacre part of a global jihad.
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Al-Shabab said the attack was in response to Kenya’s military presence in southern Somalia.
Eleven soldiers had been injured in the latest assault.
The current death toll of 62 civilians could rise further, Kenyan officials have said.
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