Bloodied but unbowed. That was the verdict last
night after President Kenyatta declared victory at the end of a four-day
siege at the Westgate Shopping Mall captured by Al Shabbab terrorists
over the weekend.
The President lauded the security forces for an exemplary performance, but conceded that Kenya had suffered immense losses.
“I
report with great sadness that 61 civilians lost their lives. Six
security officers also made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat the
criminals,” Mr Kenyatta said.
He gave a death toll of 61 civilians killed killed by the terrorists as well as six members of the security forces.
Five
of the terrorists were killed in the firefight inside Westgate, while
11 suspected accomplices arrested elsewhere were in police custody.
On
the issue of the hostages held during the four-day ordeal, the
President’s statement was silent on any freed during the rescue
operation.
He, however, revealed that three floors at
the mall had caved in towards the tail end of the mission, trapping an
unknown number in the rubble.
President Kenyatta
saluted Kenyans for the great sacrifice they made to help those affected
by the attack. “Your response has been nothing short of wonderful. We
could not in all fairness ask more of you,” said the President, who was
flanked by Deputy President William Ruto.
“I am deeply moved and proud to be your President,” he went on.
The official end to the siege came as the Nation got details of how the rescue operation unfolded.
Westgate
Mall was retaken by 20 Special Forces troopers from the Kenyan Army
after a two-hour fire-fight on Monday afternoon, the Nation sources
said.
The special team took advantage of a diversion
created by their compatriots outside the mall to distact the terrorists.
giving them the slight edge they needed to launch the final assault.
A gunman sniper on the third floor of the staircase had kept the assault team at bay for nearly 24 hours.
An
elaborate show involving lots of smoke and shooting by solders and
police officers diverted the attention of the terrorist shooter, who
appeared to be in command, for the few crucial seconds a Kenya Defense
Force sniper needed to take position and shoot him, according to
officers privy to the operation.
But even as victory
was declared, many important questions remained unanswered about the
fate of hostages, who were believed to be still in the building.
There
were also questions about what was really burning, though the Nation
obtained photographs of burnt out vehicles in the mall compound.
It
was also not clear what level of coordination there was between the
military and police, particularly the Recce Company of the General
Service Unit, which is trained specifically to deal with hostage
situations.
The killing of the shooter, who seemed to
be the leader, allowed the soldiers to access the third floor where they
fought the rest of the terrorists for the better part of Monday
afternoon before they declared victory.
The shooter was
said to be among the seven terrorists who were left standing after
storming the mall on Saturday at around noon, mowing down 62 people in a
horrific massacre and injuring close to 175 others.
The
diversion saw police officers and soldiers surrounding the mall open
sustained gunfire for nearly 10 minutes. The rapid fire and tear gas
outside the mall surprised the terrorists, who had held a combined
assault team of engaged for 24 hours.
What is not
clear is whether the military was also responsible for bombing one of
the columns of the mall, which in turn could have contributed to the
collapse of some of the floors. Some international news agencies has
earlier reported the floor of the upstairs parking lot had collapsed
after soldiers tried to blast their way in.
'BURNING MATTRESSES’
Curiously
after the incident, Security Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku had a
press briefing where he attributed the smoke to terrorists burning
mattresses at Nakumatt supermarket on the ground floor. However, the
alleged mattress fire did not spread to the rest of the building.
During
the press conference, KDF chief, Gen Julius Karangi said they were not
going back because they knew where the terrorists were in the mall.
“They
can surrender because we have no intention of going back. We are aware
of their nationalities. We are fighting global terrorism here,” said Gen
Karangi.
The soldiers said KDF Special Forces engaged
the terrorists for about two hours before killing them. In the
fire-fight, 11 soldiers were injured and rushed to hospital where six
died.
SECURITY ROOM
The
soldiers claimed that the first thing the terrorist did was to capture
the security control room where they had a full view of inside and
outside the mall through the Westgate CCTV system.
The
move put at a disadvantage the advance hostage rescue team and at one
time help was sought from specialised Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU)
and National Intelligence Service (NIS) experts to hack into the CCTV
system to “have eyes” into the mall.
This gave Kenyan
forces a full view of where the terrorists were and their formation
inside the mall. With “the eyes” inside, assault team studied the floor
plan of Westgate and chose the time when they believed the terrorists
would be exhausted after hours of vigilance.
The
assault team is said to have switched off the lights to the mall which
blacked out the CCTV that terrorists were using to run the show from
inside the control room.
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