Saturday, September 21, 2013

Kenya Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi Terrorist Attack

Nairobi Shopping Mall Terrorist Attack ---


242 casualties 67 killed including 4 attackers, 175 wounded  September 21, 2013 Nairobi Shopping Mall Terrorist Attack Somalia based Al Shabab gunmen led by a woman fire AK-47s into the air and at people at Nigeria's most modern mall. They announced that they would only attack non-Muslims, but shot at some who did not adequately pass their tests of Koranic knowledge. Compared to previous shopping mall attacks in Europe and North America which typically had only one lone gunman with no obvious motive and only occasionally involved a gunman with Islamic connections, these people and Al Shabab boldly proclaimed their killing mission and the terrorist organization.

.Reference

  • Wikipedia Westgate centre shooting On 21 September 2013, unidentified gunmen attacked the upmarket Westgate shopping mall inNairobi, Kenya. The attack, which lasted until 24 September, resulted in at least 67 deaths, including four attackers. Over 175 people were reportedly wounded in the mass shooting, with all of the gunmen reported killed. The Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the incident, which it characterised as retribution for the Kenyan military's deployment in Somalia. Many media outlets also suspected the insurgent group's involvement in the attack based on earlier reprisal warnings it had issued in the wake ofOperation Linda Nchi from 2011 to 2012.
  • New York Times
.Topics

  • Attire - black turbans with vests and grenades
  • Al-Shabab took credit: an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the carnage and vowed not to negotiate with Kenyan authorities. 
  • Backers:  A 2006 UN report identified Iran, Libya and Egypt, among countries in the region, as the main backers of the Islamist extremists.
  • Grenade attacks in Kenya Oct 2011 to 2013 attributed to Al Shaba sympathizers
  • Grenade attack started before shooting, seen on vests
  • Gunmen - no more than ten, at least one woman 
  • Israel ownership of mall
  • Kenya country
  • Muslims warned to stand up and walk away, non muslims were to be targeted. Al Shabab claimed "all Muslims" were escorted from the mall before the attack 
  • Non-muslims are targeted
  • Nairobi Kenya capital
  • Somali - at least some identified as Somali
  • Terrorist attack -police treating it as a terrorist attack
  • Upscale mall


Timeline
  • December 2011 Two explosions near Dadaab, which is home to more than 400,000 Somali refugees killed at least two police officers and wounded several others
  • Sept 2012 Kenya disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition.

.Sources

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/10/21849660-only-four-shooters-at-kenya-mall-and-they-may-have-escaped-alive-says-nypd?lite
 NYPD’s reconstruction of events, the four attackers operated in two-man teams and coordinated their movements by cellphone. After throwing three grenades and entering the mall, they used AK-47s in single-fire mode to shoot their victims. More than one-third of the dead were attending a children’s cooking contest that was being held in tents in the mall’s roof parking lot. The attackers killed them within 15 minutes of arriving at the mall.
The report said the attackers had grenades and several hundred bullets in eight magazines, but no body armor, handguns or heavy weapons. They did not try to take hostages, but killed as many victims as they could
One terrorist was shot in the leg. The shooters tilted or destroyed cameras in order to hide their whereabouts. By 6 p.m. they were in a mall storeroom near the loading docks, and waited there for six hours, tending their wounded comrade and praying. They can no longer be seen on closed circuit footage after 12:15 p.m., when the NYPD believes they slipped away.
The siege continued for two more days. In his presentation, Yorke dismissed the Kenyan government’s claims that 10 to 15 shooters were involved or that the terrorists had created smoke by setting mattresses on fire. He said he didn’t know what had caused the mall to collapse, but said the Kenyan military may have used rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles on the building


Intelligence services in Germany are not ruling out claims from Mossad that German convert Andreas 'Ahmed Khaled' Müller, among others, were involved in planning the Nairobi mall attack in which 72 people died. Mossad believes that Müller had connections with the Somalian Al-Shabaab militant group behind the Westgate siege. ... See More

[Now they think it might be a terrorist attack?]
  1. Nairobi mall shooting may be "terrorist attack" - government - News

    news.msn.com/videos/?videoid=dac446d6-7d77-df13-b99a...ap...

    54 mins ago - At least 20 people have been killed in a mass shooting at a Nairobishopping mall, in what the Kenyan government has described as a possible ...

  2. Kenyan Mall Shooting Now a Suspected Terrorist Attack - Gawker

    gawker.com/gunmen-attack-mall.../1361305639@MaxRivlinNadler

    13 hours ago - Kenyan Mall Shooting Now a Suspected Terrorist Attack ... around midday Saturday, when the robbers threw grenades into the shopping mall.

  3. Kenya Mall Shooting Attack: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | HEAVY

    www.heavy.com/.../shopping-mall-attack-in-kenya-5-fast-facts-...

    12 hours ago - The Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya is under attack by at least five gunman. Reports say that dozens are dead and that the attack targeted ...


Police: 39 people confirmed dead in hostage standoff at Nairobi, Kenya, mall

CNN - ‎25 minutes ago‎
(CNN) -- [Breaking news alert, 4:35 p.m. ET]. The death toll in a hostage standoff at a Nairobi mall has risen to at least 39 dead and 150 wounded, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address Saturday.

Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

CNN - ‎24 minutes ago‎
(CNN) -- [Breaking news 3:18 p.m.] Members of Al-Shabaab -- the militant group linked to al Qaeda that's claimed responsibility for Saturday's deadly mall attack in Kenya -- tweeted that "there will be no negotiations whatsoever" at the mall.


  • Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the carnage and vowed not to negotiate with Kenyan authorities. It claimed that "all Muslims" were escorted from the mall before the attack 
  • "The Mujahideen are still strong inside #Westgate Mall and still holding their ground," the group said late Saturday via Twitter. "All praise is due to Allah!"
  • "There was blood throughout the supermarket as we exited,
  • Armed gunmen were holed up with hostages



Where it started: October 24, 2011 An attacker threw a grenade into a small bar in Nairobi. It came after warnings to residents to expect an attack on a mall or bar, and threats from Al-Shabab militants from Somali in retaliation for sending Kenyan troops the previous week. Officials did not place blame on the Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist, but many speculated they were responsible.

Kenyan Bar Hit With Grenade Attack OFFICIALS FEAR SOMALI MILITANTS TO BLAME
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Oct 24, 2011  (NEWSER)  link http://www.stage.newser.com/story/131725/kenyan-bar-hit-with-grenade-attack.html


Dozens of casualties in attack on Nairobi shopping mall

CNN - ‎53 minutes ago‎
(CNN) -- Gunmen attacked an upscale shopping mall in the Kenyan capital on Saturday, leading to a fierce gunbattle with police and leaving dozens of casualties.

Kenya Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi Terrorist Attack Ninjapundit terrorism
100 12/10/2013
http://ninjapundit.blogspot.com/2013/09/kenya-westgate-shopping-mall-in-nairobi.html

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