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Update: Kenya Red Cross indicate that death toll rises to 68 in wake of terrorist attack on Westgate Shopping Mall
A policeman carries a child away from gun fire as Kenyan security forces work to contain terrorist attack on Westgate Mall, in Nairobi. Sept, 22 2013. PHOTO/Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Latest reports from Kenya indicate that 68 people have been killed, 175 hospitalized, and more than 1,000 hostages have been rescued in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in the country’s capital, Nairobi.
Kenya’s security forces say the hostage standoff has nearly ended at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, where al-Qaeda-linked, al-Shabaab militants attacked shoppers with guns and grenades on Saturday. “Most of the hostages have been released, and the Kenya Defence Forces has taken control of most parts of the building,” Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna told the local television station KTN. He did say how many hostages had been held or freed, however, a credible source also attacked to the Kenyan security apparatus, revealed that over 1,000 hostages had been rescued.
Kenyan officials said earlier Sunday that they expected the hostage-rescue operation at the Westgate mall to come to a close “tonight.”
A large explosion rocked the mall earlier in the afternoon, followed by silence. It was by far the largest blast heard since the more than 30-hour siege began, according to witnesses. It came as Kenya’s Red Cross rose the death toll from the attacks to 68.
The country’s Disaster Operation Center said late Sunday that “this will end tonight. Our forces will prevail.”
Kenya’s interior cabinet secretary Joseph Lenku said that Kenyan forces have control of the security cameras inside the mall. Combined military and police forces have surrounded the building.
The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, addressed the nation on Sunday just a few kilometers away from Westgate, where Kenyan military forces continued to engage with sporadic gun battles with the hostage-takers. He noted that he also been affected personally by the tragedy.
“My nephew and his fiancée were among those who died in the attack,” he said. “Many of us have lost loved ones. Let us mourn them all as one nation.”
Kenyatta expressed confidence that Kenyan security forces would be able to “successfully neutralize the terrorists” that he said were currently cornered in the building. He said the militants were reported to be both male and female, though that could not confirmed.
“They shall not get away with their despicable an beastly acts,” he said. “Like the cowardly perpetrators now cornered in the building, we will punish the masterminds swiftly and, indeed, very painfully.”
Watch President Uhuru’s Kenyatta statement to Kenyans on the Westgate mall attack
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press