Kenyan president says 14 victims dead at hotel complex; gunmen killed

Kenyan security forces walk away from the hotel complex at the scene of the attack Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya. Extremists stormed a luxury hotel in Kenya’s capital on Tuesday, setting off thunderous explosions and gunning down people at cafe tables in an attack claimed by Africa’s deadliest Islamic militant group. (Photo: Ben Curtis, AP)

Kenyan president says 14 victims dead at hotel complex; gunmen killed

NAIROBI,Kenya – Kenya’s security forces have killed the Islamic extremist gunmen whose assault on a luxury hotel and shopping complex took 14 “innocent lives,” the country’s president said Wednesday.

“All the terrorists have been eliminated,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in announcing an end to the operation to secure the complex in the capital, Nairobi.

In a televised address, he did not say how many attackers were involved. He said more than 700 people were evacuated during the security operation and urged Kenyans to “go back to work without fear,” saying the East African country is safe.

In the hours before Kenyatta spoke, sporadic gunfire could be heard from the scene after scores of people were rescued at daybreak during what police called a “mopping-up” exercise.

Surveillance video showed the attack involved at least four armed men.

Al-Shabab – the extremist group allied to al-Qaida and based in neighboring Somalia – claimed responsibility for the carnage at the DusitD2 hotel complex, which includes bars, restaurants, offices and banks and is in Nairobi’s well-to-do Westlands neighborhood with many foreign expatriates. Al-Shabab carried out the 2013 attack at the nearby Westgate Mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people.

The U.S. State Department confirmed that an American citizen was among those killed, but did not release the victim’s identity.READ MORE

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/