Kenya attack ‘just the premiere of Act 1’

Kenyan authorities are holding eight people after the attack by Islamist militants on a Nairobi shopping mall and have released three others after the assault that killed 67 civilians and soldiers, the interior minister said yesterday.

Somali Islamist group al Shabaab said the attack, which ended after a four-day siege, was “just the premiere of Act 1” and suggested it would be followed by other actions by its “warriors”.

As the police investigation advanced, a leading Muslim cleric urged security forces to avoid harassing Muslims in their pursuit of those responsible.

Investigators trying to determine the identity of the attackers were making good progress in their search through the rubble of the mall where three floors collapsed after a series of blasts and a huge blaze, Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said. Five of the attackers were killed, he said, but survivors of attack have said some may have escaped.

“Police are holding eight suspects as they seek to unmask the face behind the terror attack. Three others were interrogated and released,” Ole Lenku told a news briefing. Kenyan officials have said they are investigating a theory that the Islamists may have hired a shop in the mall before the assault to store weaponry, including a heavy machine gun.

Suspects were being held under anti-terrorism laws meaning they could be held “for longer periods before being arraigned in court”, Ole Lenku said, although he did not give details.

Al Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, said it launched the attack to demand Kenya withdraw its troops from Somalia, where Kenyan forces deployed in 2011 to strike at the group which Nairobi blamed for attacks and kidnappings in Kenya’s eastern area and coastline.

Meanwhile yesterday, a top-ranking government official admitted that Kenya’s military caused the massive collapse of three floors of Nairobi’s Westgate Mall during the siege.

The official also confirmed that Kenyan troops fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the mall, but would not say what was used to cause the collapse.

The official insisted on anonymity because he was sharing sensitive intelligence information that has not been publicly released.

The top official’s confirmation backs up information given by another official, who said soldiers were responsible for the collapse which created a gaping hole in the mall’s roof.

That official said that fired rocket-propelled grenades caused the collapse.

It is believed the collapse of the floors helped to bring an end to the four-day siege at the mall, but it may have killed scores of hostages. The official said autopsies on bodies under the rubble will show if those people were killed by the building collapse or had been slain earlier.

Investigators have recovered a vehicle believed to have been used by the assailants who led the attack at the mall, a top Kenyan government official said.

They are also building the profile of a man who warned a pregnant woman at the mall to flee for her own safety moments before Saturday’s attack, he said.

- Reuters