Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday said that militants who stormed an upmarket hotel complex, killing 14 people, had been “eliminated” after an almost 20-hour siege in which hundreds of civilians were rescued.
At least one suicide bomber blew himself up and gunmen engaged security forces in numerous shoot-outs during the assault on the DusitD2 compound, which includes a hotel, spa, restaurant and office buildings.
The attack was claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Somalian group al-Shabaab, which has repeatedly targeted Kenya since it sent its army into Somalia in October 2011 to fight the group.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The sight of armed militants and civilians fleeing reminded Kenyans of a 2013 al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate mall, which left 67 dead in a siege that lasted four days and led to sharp criticism of the security response.
In a televised address, Kenyatta said that about 700 civilians had been evacuated throughout the attack at DusitD2, with the swift and effective work from security forces drawing widespread praise in local media.
“I can confirm that ... the security operation at Dusit complex is over and all the terrorists eliminated,” Kenyatta said. “As of this moment, we have confirmation that 14 innocent lives were lost to the ... terrorists, with others injured.”
It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total.
CCTV footage broadcast on local media showed four black-clad, heavily armed men entering the complex on Tuesday afternoon.
At least one of them blew himself up at the start of the attack.
Two attackers were shot dead yesterday morning after a prolonged shoot-out, a police source said.
The attack began at about 3pm on Tuesday, with a loud blast followed by gunfire and rapid calls for help spreading on Twitter.
Kenyan Police Chief Joseph Boinnet said that the attack began with an explosion targeting three cars in the parking lot and a suicide bombing in the foyer of the Dusit hotel.
Among the dead was a US citizen, a US Department of State official said.
A mortuary official said there were also 11 Kenyan victims, a British victim, one with no papers and an unidentified torso of a male adult.
It was a tormented night for families of those trapped as they waited outside the hotel, with sporadic gunfire ringing out, and the rescue of dozens of people at about 3:30am.
Explosions and gunfire intensified from dawn until police managed to secure the complex mid-morning.
An editorial in the Daily Nation newspaper said that the attack was a stark reminder that Kenya’s security challenges are far from over.
The last major attack in the country was in 2015, when al-Shabaab killed 148 people at a university in Garissa.
Since then, sporadic attacks have targeted security forces mostly in the remote northeastern parts of the country.
“Just when we thought that things were calm, the gangs unleashed mayhem. For Kenyans, the chilling reality is that the attacks are not ceasing,” the editorial said.
In its statement, al-Shabaab said that the attack came exactly three years after its fighters overran a Kenyan military base in Somalia, killing about 200 soldiers.
The government has refused to give a toll or disclose details about the attack.
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