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The FBI is investigating claims that up to five of the terrorists who killed 68 people in a despicable attack on an upmarket Kenyan shopping mall are Americans, as the the siege moved into its third day with fresh gunfire and explosions reported coming from the center on Monday morning in Nairobi.

As day broke following a quiet night, journalists near the upmarket Westgate complex heard bursts of rifle fire and muffled blasts. A Kenyan Red Cross official, Abbas Guled, said there appeared to be clashes inside the building and Kenyan military officers said a small number of hostages remained inside the mall.

On Sunday, the Kenyan military reported that it had rescued hostages and secured ‘most parts’ of the center following the two day standoff but that up to ten hostages remained trapped inside with heavily militants from Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab movement.

‘We are yet to get confirmation from what’s happening in the building,’ Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a Kenyan military spokesman, told The Associated Press.

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Sources close to terror group Al Shabaab told CNN on Sunday that nine extremists had been named on their Twitter account along with their nationalities and allegedly included U.S. citizens. The account has now been suspended by the site.

And just before evening on Sunday Kenya Defence Forces posted on its Twitter account that ‘most of the hostages hostages have been rescued’ and that security forces had taken control of ‘most parts of the building’ – however, the operation is still continuing and only a small number remained under the control of the militants.

The dramatic assault, which began shortly before sundown, came as two helicopters circled the Westgate mall, with one skimming very close to the roof.

They added that four military personnel were injured in the operation and officials attached to the defense forces did not elaborate how the hostages were freed or if the extremists were in custody.

Some gunmen are reported to be currently holed up in a supermarket in the shopping mall complex.

The revelation that Americans could be involved in the terror atrocity came after a large explosion today rocked the upmarket mall where as many as 15 Islamic extremists had been holding the hostages a day after attacking it, killing at least 68 and injuring at least 175 people – including five Americans.

 

 

Rescue mission: An image from AFP TV shows military forces taking position inside the shopping mall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, President Barack Obama called Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to express his condolences.

‘President Obama reiterated U.S. support for Kenya’s efforts to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice,’ the White House said in a statement.

The names of the dead began to emerge over the weekend as the siege continued. Canadian diplomat Anne-Marie Desloges, 29, and a pregnant Kenyan radio journalist Ruhila Adatia were identified as being killed in the terrorist attack.

A renowned Ghanaian poet and statesman Kofi Awoonor was killed. The esteemed professor was a former ambassador Brazil, Cuba and the United Nations.

Elaine Dang, 26, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, has been named as one of the injured and is recovering in hospital today. She tweeted on Sunday: ‘I am recovering. Thank you for all the love and support – in Kenya and overseas. Terrorism knows no religion.’

She then posted a picture of herself and added: ‘Proof that I am OK – hanging out with some of my best friends in Nairobi.’

The mall, a popular haunt for rich Kenyans and expats, is dotted with bodies lying in pools of blood. Some victims were shot dead as they sat in their cars, while others have been left with horrific injuries.

 

 

 

 

Gunfire erupted briefly on Sunday inside the Nairobi shopping mall where Islamist militants are holed up with hostages.

The terrorists, using guns and grenades, slaughtered 68 people in the attack, according to Kenyan Interior Minister Joe Lenku. A large Kenyan security force has laid siege to the mall and taken control of its security cameras.

Five hostages were released on Sunday at around 2am local time. It is thought that Israeli soldiers are assisting with the rescue mission: ‘The Israelis have entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured,’ a source told AFP.

Two wounded Kenyan security forces officers were carried out of the mall this morning after a barrage of gunfire was heard.

Two gunmen have been killed by authorities, but as many as 15 remain, CNN reported. Is is believed that one of the militant fighters is a woman. 

Jonathan Maungo, a private security guard, told Reuters: ‘They entered through blood, that’s how they’ll leave.’

 

 

Terrified shoppers told of how they huddled in back hallways and prayed they would not be found by the militants. When the way appeared clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men sprinted out of the mall.

At one burger restaurant, a man and woman lay in a final embrace after they had been killed, before their bodies were removed. Pop music was still playing over the loudspeaker.

Witness Elijah Kamau said the gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted, as they began their attack.

The gunmen threw grenades and then opened fire, sending shoppers and staff fleeing for their lives.

Charles Karani, 41, an IT engineer, said: ‘I hid under a car with my daughters, and I saw the men line up maybe 40 people and ask them who was Muslim, and if they were to prove it by saying the name of the Prophet’s mother. Those who got it wrong were shot.

‘There was blood everywhere. Two ladies under the car with me had gunshot wounds on their legs.

‘Another Indian gentlemen was hit in the face by a bullet but he seemed not to be gravely hurt. Other people for sure are dead. I saw four people lying, not moving.

Somali-based militant group al-Shabaab, which is linked to al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the atrocity in which men armed with guns and grenades stormed the mall and targeted non-Muslims.

In what is believed to be a first, terrorists live-tweeted the attack on their Twitter account until it was suspended.

Horror: Shoppers hurry down an escalator with their hands in the air as they make their way out of the shopping centre to safety

 

 

 

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta says he shares the grief of the nation – his nephew and nephew’s fiancee are among the dead.

‘We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to,’ said President Kenyatta. ‘We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime.

‘We are as brave and invincible as the lions on our coat of arms, my government stands ready… I urge all Kenyans to stand together and see this dark moment through,’ the clearly shaken president continued.

‘The despicable perpetrators of this cowardly act hoped to intimidate, divide and cause despondency amongst Kenyans.We have overcome terrorist attacks before. We will defeat them again.’

He urged Kenyans to ‘remain calm and vigilant’ and asked them to donate blood to help treat the injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A confidential United Nations report cited by the New York Times called the attack ‘a complex, two-pronged assault’ with two squads of gunmen opening fire while storming the mall from different floors. Witnesses told the paper one of the gunmen was a woman.

 

Several armed units and soldiers could be seen on Kenyan television streaming into the area surrounding the mall as the siege approached the 20-hour mark. Reports also indicated the gunmen were firing on authorities staged in the parking lot as the sun came up on Sunday. Continuous sporadic gunfire was heard throughout the morning.

Hannah Chisholm, visiting Nairobi from the UK, said she and 60 others barricaded themselves in a large storeroom.

‘We kept running to different places but the shots were getting louder so we barricaded ourselves along with about 60 others into a large storeroom. There were children hiding with us as well as someone who had been shot,’she told the BBC.

‘The gunfire was loud and we were scared but at that point we thought the gunmen were thieves so we assumed they wouldn’t try to reach the storeroom,’ she added.

Diplomat Annemarie Desloges, 29, was killed in the terror attack, the Canadian government confirmed on Sunday.

Mrs Desloges was shopping with her husband when the attack took place, according to the Vancouver Sun. She was a liaison officer with the Canada Border Services Agency, working on immigration issues, the paper noted. Mrs Deloges had been living in Kenya for two years.

Britain’s Foreign Office said at least three UK nationals were killed in the attack and warned that the number of such fatalities is ‘likely to rise as further information becomes available’.

It was reported today that a person holding dual Australian and British citizenship was killed in the attack.

French President Francois Holland said two French women were killed. 

One South African citizen was killed, said the country’s International Relations Department.

Two Indians were killed and four wounded in the attack, said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said a 33-year-old Dutch woman died in the attack and that seven other Dutch citizens who were in the mall escaped unharmed. The victim’s identity was not released.

A 38-year-old Chinese woman was killed in the shopping mall ‘terror attack’, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya said in a statement. Her son was injured and hospitalized in stable condition, according to the statement posted on the embassy’s website.

Pregnant Kenyan radio journalist Ruhila Adatia was confirmed among the dead. Prior to going shopping for baby clothes, Ms Adatia was hosting a children’s cooking competition in the mall’s parking lot.

The popular presenter posted several pictures taken posing with fans to Instagram in the hours before the attack.

Fellow journalist Kamal Kaur, who was with Ms Adatia in the mall when she was shot dead, told KTN that her children had been injuried. Both children suffered shrapnel wounds to the legs and one had a head injury, she said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another survivor claimed that the gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that only non-Muslims would be targeted when they opened fire at the upmarket mall of the Westlands district around midday on Saturday.

‘Militants went into the mall and executed people: women and children, anyone who got in their path,’ New York Times staff photographer Tyler HIcks told the paper in an interview. Mr Hicks was in the mall during the attack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Police initially believed the attack was an attempt by about ten armed men to rob a shop. But Elijah Kamau, another survivor witness, said that the gunmen had announced that they were targeting non-Muslims as they began their attack at the center.

Some of those who escaped were ‘challenged to recite a Muslim prayer and were then let out’, according to Allan Sayers, who contacted MailOnline and said he was in the Westgate mall five minutes before the attack.

Mr Sayers said people were still in text and phone contact with some of the hostages.