Security forces surround militants in Kenyan mall

Kenyan security forces remain locked in a stand-off with terrorists in a Nairobi shopping centre, nearly 24 hours after the gang opened fire in the building, killing at least 59 people.

Al-Shabaab, a militant Somali group that has declared allegiance to al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the attack at the Westgate Mall, during which non-Muslims were reportedly singled out.

A volley of gunfire lasting about 30 seconds this morning interrupted a stalemate of several hours at the shopping centre, which has several Israeli-owned outlets and which is frequented by expatriates and Kenyans.

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A wounded woman at the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi, which was stormed by al Qaeda-linked militants yesterday. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

Foreigners, including two diplomats - one from Canada and another from Ghana - were killed in yesterday’s attack at Westgate mall. Three Britons were also killed with that number is set to rise, the British Foreign Office said this afternoon.

Shortly after the shots were fired, troops in camouflage ran crouching below a restaurant terrace along the front of the building that had been buzzing with customers when assailants charged in. One witness said they first told Muslims to leave.

For hours after the brazen attack, the dead were strewn around tables of unfinished meals. At one burger restaurant, a man and woman lay in a final embrace after they had been killed, before their bodies were removed. Pop music was left playing.

Scores of Kenyans gathered at a site overlooking the mall, awaiting what they expected to be a violent denouement. “They entered through blood, that’s how they’ll leave,” said Jonathan Maungo, a private security guard.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, facing his first major security challenge since a March election, said some of his close family members were among the dead, and vowed to defeat the militants. “We have overcome terrorist attacks before,” he said.

The assault was the biggest single attack in Kenya since al-Qaeda's East Africa cell bombed the US Embassy in Nairobi in 1998, killing more than 200 people. In 2002, the same militant cell attacked an Israeli-owned hotel on the coast and tried to shoot down an Israeli jet in a coordinated strike.

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters security forces were doing everything they could to rescue hostages still inside the mall. He said the government believed that there were up to 15 attackers who security forces had been able to “isolate”, but no communication had yet been established with them. He added that 175 people had been taken to hospital after an assault that could prove a costly setback for east Africa’s biggest economy, which relies heavily on tourism revenues. More than 1,000 people were evacuated in the standoff. Soldiers joined the security operation backed by armoured personnel carriers in the hours after the attack. Security forces have been combing through the mall, clearing the floors.

The dead included children, and the wounded ranged in age from 2 to 78. Many victims were at a children’s cooking competition when assailants opened fire on them, witnesses said.

Terrified shoppers told of how they huddled in back hallways and prayed they would not be found by the Islamic extremist gunmen.

When the way appeared clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men sprinted out of the four-storey mall.

Witness Elijah Kamau said the gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted. The gunmen threw grenades and then opened fire, sending shoppers and staff fleeing for their lives.

One woman emerged this morning after hiding under a car in the basement. She held one shoe and looked dazed, while making a frantic phone call to her husband who later met her.

France said two of its citizens were killed, and Canada said two Canadians died, including a 29-year-old diplomat. Ghanaian diplomat and poet, Kofi Awoonor, was also killed, as was a Chinese woman, according to China’s official news agency.

US secretary of state John Kerry, who offered assistance to Kenya in the incident, said several US citizens had been hurt and the wife of a US diplomat working for the US Agency for International Development was killed.

Al Shabaab, which is battling Kenyan and other African peacekeepers in Somalia, had repeatedly threatened attacks in Kenya if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of their country. The group appeared to taunt the security forces, saying on Twitter there would be no negotiations whatsoever with Kenyan officials over the standoff. "10 hours have passed and the Mujahideen are still strong inside #Westgate Mall and still holding their ground. All praise is due to Allah!", the group tweeted last night, although its Twitter account was suspended this morning. The organisation claimed it had killed more than 100 Kenyan "kuffar", a derogatory term used to describe non-Muslims.

Nairobi’s mortuary superintendent, Sammy Nyongesa Jacob, said Africans, Asians and Caucasians were among the bodies brought in following the attack.

Relatives of hostages still trapped in the mall kept vigil overnight at a nearby religious community centre, and people queued up to donate blood across the country, responding to media appeals.

Kevin Jamal, who had joined Kenya Red Cross Society volunteers, was awaiting news of his sister who he said was held inside. He said security forces could have done better. “They should not allow themselves to be outmanoeuvred by less than 20 people,” he said.

A private security firm would normally search patrons of the mall using metal detectors and open the trunks of cars entering parking areas, but the guards would be unarmed.

Those rescued said at least one of the assailants was a woman. One militant was shot and arrested in clashes following the initial siege, but died shortly afterwards in hospital.

Witnesses said the attackers were armed with AK-47 rifles and wore ammunition belts. Police said they stormed in during a children’s cooking competition hosted by a radio station at the mall, just as the winners were about to receive prizes.

Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October 2011 to pursue militants it blamed for kidnapping tourists and attacking its security forces.

Al Shabaab’s last big attack outside Somalia was a twin assault in nearby Uganda, targeting people watching the World Cup final on television in Kampala in 2010, killing 77 people.

The chairwoman of the Commission of the African Union, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, condemned the attack in the "strongest possible terms" and said it underlines "the imperative for renewed and reinvigorated efforts to combat terrorism throughout the continent".