Army retakes mall after two-hour fight

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.