Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Shabab Claim Responsibility for Deadly Attack in Nairobi
The Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack at a hotel and office complex in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday.

By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
New York Times
Jan. 15, 2019

Assailants identified as Shabab militants attacked a Nairobi luxury hotel and office complex housing foreign companies Tuesday, spreading death and panic as the police sealed off the area and evacuated wounded civilians.

At least one person was confirmed killed and 15 wounded in the assault in the Kenyan capital, the authorities said, but the death toll appeared to higher based on news-service photographs taken at the scene showing at least four bodies splayed on a restaurant terrace.

A plainclothes officer directing traffic on a highway near where terrorists attacked the DusitD2 hotel complex.

The police warned that some of the assailants, armed with guns and grenades, were still inside the complex.

The assault by the Shabab, an Islamist extremist group that has carried out many attacks in eastern Africa, came on the eve of a verdict in the trial of four men accused of helping the Shabab orchestrate a deadly assault on a Nairobi shopping mall five years ago.

Several hospitals in the city were appealing for blood donations, and the Kenya Red Cross opened a hotline for family members searching for loved ones.

Nairobi’s sprawling Village Market shopping complex, located in the Gigiri neighborhood five miles away, closed temporarily after news of the attack broke, as a security precaution.

Dr. Mercy Korir, a physician at a Nairobi hospital, confirmed that at least 15 people had been wounded.

The inspector general of the police, Joseph Boinett, confirmed there had been casualties but could not say how many. Although the Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, he declined to call it an act of terrorism and maintained that the police had the situation under control.

Mr. Boinett said that one assailant was in custody and that the police were searching for others in the building complex.

The raid began around 3 p.m. in the Westland area of the city, the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors the group’s activities, said. Witnesses told KTN News Kenya that four men had jumped out of a white car and opened fire as they arrived at a security checkpoint, before blasting their way into the complex.

“I just started hearing gunshots, and then started seeing people running away raising their hands up, and some were entering the bank to hide for their lives,” a woman working in the neighborhood told Reuters.

Police and counterterrorism officers quickly surrounded the complex, and videos showed security officers evacuating dozens of people from the buildings while gunfire crackled in the background and cars burned.

The complex attacked includes the DusitD2 hotel, banks and offices.CreditThomas Mukoya/Reuters
“I tried to escape with a friend but she fainted as we ran away from the gunshots,” one woman told KTN News. “So I had to leave her and hide in one of the bathrooms until the police came and rescued me.”

One man emerged covered with blood, and others less obviously wounded were also sent to nearby hospitals. As of 6 p.m., an unspecified number of people were still huddled inside the complex, according to local news reports.

One witness said that she had seen body parts as she left the building, and there were reports of gun victims, including at least one child, being treated at local hospitals.

The attack by the Shabab, a militant Islamist organization linked to Al Qaeda, came exactly three years after the group assaulted a Kenyan military base in Somalia that killed around 140 soldiers. The group, which is based in Somalia, was also responsible for an attack in 2013 on the Westgate mall in Nairobi where the militants killed 67 people.

The Shabab have been fighting the United Nations-backed government in Mogadishu, Somalia, for years, seeking to impose its strict interpretation of Islam. In recent months, they have carried out a spate of attacks in Kenya, killing dozens.

The attack came shortly before a court was expected to hand down a verdict in the trial of four men charged with aiding the Shabab in the mall attack. The men have denied the charges.

Reporting was contributed by Emily Oduor, Megan Specia, Rick Gladstone and Eric Schmitt.

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