Kenya hotel attack may not be over as renewed gunfire heard
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Explosions, heavy gunfire reverberate through building in initial attack
The Associated Press · Posted: Jan 15, 2019 9:32 AM ET | Last Updated: January 16
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Security camera footage released to the local media showed an armed attacker walking in the notel compound. Al-Shabab, the Somalia-based extremist group, is claiming responsibility. (Security Camera Footage/Associated Press)
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Anniversary of military base attack
Gunfire continued several minutes after the first reports as ambulances, security forces and firefighters converged on the scene. A bomb disposal unit arrived, and vehicles were cordoned off for fear they contained explosives.
Police said they blew up a car that had explosives inside. An unexploded grenade was also seen in a hallway at the complex.
Crump said gunfire could still be heard as him and his colleagues eventually evacuated.
"I don't know where those shots were coming from or who they were coming from, but as we were leaving it was definitely still much still very much active shooters around," he said.
Al-Shabaab has vowed retribution against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia since 2011. The al-Qaeda-linked group has killed hundreds of people in Kenya, which has been targeted more than any other of the six countries providing troops to an African Union force in Somalia.
Members of security forces secure a building at the scene in Nairobi. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
The hotel complex in Nairobi's Westlands neighborhood is less than two kilometres from Westgate Mall and lies on a relatively quiet, tree-lined road in what is considered one of the most secure areas of the city. The hotel's website says it is "cocooned away from the hustle and bustle in a secure and peaceful haven."
"I've been here five years, and obviously you're aware of the security issues and the fact that hotels and corporate office blocks and shopping centres are high targets, but I think we've had a false sense of security," said Crump.
On Monday, a magistrate ruled that three men must stand trial on charges they were involved in the Westgate Mall siege. A fourth suspect was freed for lack of evidence.
The attack on Tuesday came three years to the day after al-Shabaab extremists attacked a Kenyan military base in neighbouring Somalia, killing scores of people.
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90+ - Turkey evacuates wounded after deadly Mogadishu blast
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December 29, 2019 / 8:51 PM / 2 days ago
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A Turkish military cargo plane landed in the Somali capital on Sunday to evacuate people badly wounded in a devastating truck bombing that killed at least 90 people including two Turkish nationals.
A Somali child injured in the car bomb explosion at the Afgoye junction waits to be evacuated for specialised treatment by a Turkish military cargo plane at the Aden Abdulle International Airport in Mogadishu, December 29, 2019. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
The plane also brought emergency medical staff and supplies, the Turkish embassy said in a tweet, adding these had been taken to a Turkish-run hospital in Mogadishu.
Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye told state media that 10 Somalis who were badly wounded in Saturday’s blast would be evacuated to Turkey. Turkey had sent 24 doctors to treat those wounded who would not be evacuated, he added.
Since a 2011 famine in Somalia, Turkey has been a leading aid provider to the country as Ankara seeks to boost its influence in the strategic Horn of Africa in competition with Gulf rivals like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Saturday’s blast, at a busy checkpoint during rush hour in Mogadishu, was the deadliest in war-torn Somalia in more than two years.. No-one immediately claimed responsibility, although authorities blamed al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab.
In an address on Saturday evening, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo said the group sought to kill innocent people and destroy infrastructure.
“The people and its government will never be demoralized from achieving our development goals and the rebuilding of our country,” he added.
The dead included many students from a university in the city, authorities said.
A Reuters witness at Mogadishu airport saw 15 injured Somalis and the bodies of two dead Turks loaded on the plane.
The bombing was the 20th vehicle-borne explosives attack of 2019 in Somalia and the year is ending with more deaths from such attacks than 2018, according to the Hiraal Institute, a Mogadishu-based security-think tank.
Grieving families arranged burials and funerals on Sunday for their loved ones, having endured the anguish of identifying charred corpses and body fragments at the blast site and at hospitals around the city.
Speaking on Sunday in his weekly blessing in the Vatican, Pope Francis said: “Let us pray to the Lord for the victims of the horrible terrorist attack yesterday in Mogadishu...I am close to all the family members and those who are mourning.”
Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Additional reporting by Gavin Jones in Rome and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by William Maclean and Frances Kerry
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