Kenyan troops battled into the early hours of Monday as they tried to end a bloody stand-off with Somali militants holding hostages inside a shopping mall, with police warning the death toll of 68 could rise sharply.
The army said it had secured most of the upmarket, part Israeli-owned Westgate complex, and that most the hostages had been rescued. It said it was trying to bring a “speedy conclusion” to the drama, now into its third day.
Security and intelligence sources said Israeli agents were also assisting in the operation. Kenya’s National Disaster Operation Centre said a “major engagement” with the al Qaeda-linked Shebab fighters was in process.
“Our concern is to rescue all hostages alive and that is why the operation is delicate,” the Kenya Defence Forces said in its latest update. It did not say how many people were being held by the dozen-or-so attackers.
“All efforts are underway to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion,” it said, adding four of its soldiers were wounded in what appeared to be the final efforts to secure the mall, which is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates.
A correspondent close to the mall said the area was eerily quiet, with no sounds of gunshots heard – possibly indicating the attackers were holed up deep inside the sprawling four-storey complex, one of Nairobi’s largest buildings.
“The criminals are now all located in one place within the building,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a speech to the nation.
“They shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts,” Kenyatta said in an emotional speech, in which he announced he had lost a nephew and his fiancee in the attack. “We will punish the masterminds swiftly, and indeed very painfully.”
Kenyatta said more than 1,000 people were rescued, and that he had also received “numerous offers of assistance from friendly countries”.
A Kenyan security source said Israelis “are rescuing the hostages and the injured”.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to confirm or deny its agents were involved, although a Western intelligence official confirmed the Israelis were playing a frontline role.
British and US agents were also at the scene, the source said.