Kenya, incapable of handling terror

Kenya, incapable of handling terror

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8796564_sThe Kenyan security forces are incapable of handling a terror attack like the one that took place yesterday in Nairobi. Israeli sources said this morning.

The source added that the local forces are not equipped to perform such intelligence missions that could have foiled the attack, and “do not have the skills to confront a hostage situation of this scale” one of the sources said. He pointed out that other African countries face a similar situation.

Somalia’s militant group, al-Shabaab, is claiming responsibility for the attack on a Nairobi mall on Saturday that has killed at least 30 people, saying it was retribution for the Kenyan forces’ 2011 push into Somalia. The group threatened more attacks.

As night fell on the Kenyan city, hostages remained inside the mall, but officials didn’t or couldn’t say how many. Two groups of army special forces troops had moved inside as the stand-off stretched into its ninth hour.

Police and military surrounded the huge complex as helicopters buzzed overhead. A reporter said he saw a wounded Kenyan soldier put into an ambulance at nightfall, an indication, perhaps, of a final shoot-out inside.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Witnesses said at least five gunmen including at least one woman first attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi’s Westgate mall, a new shopping centre that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The mall’s ownership is Israeli, and security experts have long said that the structure made for an attractive terrorist target.

The attack began shortly after noon with bursts of gunfire and grenades. Shoppers, expatriates and rich Kenyans fled in every direction: into back corners of stores, back service hallways and bank vaults. Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out of the mall as undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were being transported in shopping carts.

According to the Guardian, Al-Shabaab, on its Twitter feed, said that it has often warned Kenya’s government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia “would have severe consequences”. The group claimed that its gunmen killed 100 people, but its claims are frequently exaggerated.

“The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders,” al-Shabaab said. Another tweet said: “For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it’s time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land #Westgate.”

In late 2011 Al-Shabaab threatened to unleash a large-scale attack in Nairobi. Kenya has seen a regular spate of grenade attacks since then but such a large terrorist attack is a first.

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