Gunmen who massacred at least 67 people in Kenya’s Westgate Mall in September were special suicide commandos, Somalian insurgent group al-Shabaab said yesterday, dismissing reports that the men had tried to escape.
Members of a “martyrdom brigade,” the gunmen were “brothers who have volunteered to enter into enemy ranks and cause havoc before being killed by the enemy,” the militant group said in the latest issue of its online magazine.
While not specifically saying they had died, al-Shabaab dismissed initial reports by Kenyan Chief of Defense Forces Julius Karangi that the men had attempted to flee.
“Karangi even had the audacity to claim that the martyrdom-seeking mujahedeen were seeking to abscond and escape from the mall,” the magazine read.
The magazine, released yesterday via extremist Web sites, is a special edition dedicated to the four-day siege at Westgate.
Slickly produced and written in both English and East Africa’s Swahili language, it is crammed with gruesome photographs of the attack and gloating messages lauding the success of the massacre.
“Westgate was not a fight, it was a message,” the magazine quoted al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamed Rage as saying. “The real fight is on the way.”
It did not name or say how many gunmen there were, but police believe there to have been only four attackers, not the dozen that security forces had initially reported.
Interpol is assisting Nairobi in trying to identify four bodies suspected to be those of the gunmen.
However, media have previously speculated the gunmen may have escaped in the chaos of the fighting, although security sources say they died in a final stand off with Kenyan commandos, who ended the fight by firing anti-tank rockets that sparked a fierce fire.
Witnesses in the mall described how the fighters stormed the crowded complex, firing from the hip and hurling grenades at shoppers and staff.
The Kenyan Red Cross has said that about 20 people are still missing and there are fears that more bodies could be found in the wreckage of the mall.
“Westgate was meant to send a message to Kenyans: get out of Somalia and stop your aggressions against Muslims,” the magazine read.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number