Mall attackers blame Kenyan assault team for destruction

Kenyan troops were still searching for bodies in the wreckage of the Nairobi shopping mall today as its terrorist al-Shabab attackers tried to claim the destruction was not their fault.

The group claimed that a Kenyan assault team carried out “a demolition” of the building, burying 137 hostages in rubble and also used chemical weapons. A government spokesman denied the claims.

He said the collapse of three floors in the mall was caused by a fire started by the terrorists and that the official civilian death toll remained 61.

“Al-Shabab is known for wild allegations and there is absolutely no truth to what they’re saying,” he said.

But officials said the death count will probably rise. Estimates varied between only a few bodies to dozens more possibly still inside the Westgate Mall.

Photos and video of the damage showed the mall’s top level car park collapsed in the middle of the building.

That brought the second level down onto the ground floor on top of at least eight civilians and one or more attackers.

Kenya said 11 suspects in total have been arrested in connection with the attack, including at least seven at the airport.

The International Criminal Court in the Hague has said it is prepared to work with Kenya to bring the attackers to justice.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that while Kenya has primary jurisdiction in the murder of civilians, the atrocity could also fall under the court’s jurisdiction.

The mall, which was popular with foreign residents of the capital as well as tourists and wealthy Kenyans, is now being treated as a crime scene and the Kenyan military has handed over control of the building to the police.

President Uhuru Kenyatta told the nation on Tuesday night that the terrorists had been defeated and declared three days of national mourning beginning Wednesday.

Gunshots could still be heard from the mall but the government spokesman said they were from Kenyan forces going room to room, firing protectively before entering unknown territory.

“During sanitization once you take control of the place if you go to a room where you haven’t visited before you shoot first to make sure you aren’t walking into an ambush,” he said.

“But there hasn’t been any gunfire from the terrorists for more than 36 hours.”

Fears persisted that some of the attackers could still be alive and loose inside the rubble of the mall, a vast complex that had shops for retailers like Bose, Nike and Adidas, as well as banks, restaurants and a casino.

A high-ranking security official involved in the investigations said it would take time to search the whole mall before declaring that the terrorist threat had been crushed.