By
Patrick Garrity and Simon Moya-Smith, NBC News
 |
|
An
injured woman is carried to safety after masked gunmen stormed an upmarket mall
and sprayed gunfire on shoppers and staff in Nairobi on Saturday. Simon Maina /
AFP - Getty Images
|
Gunmen stormed a crowded shopping mall
frequented by Westerners on Saturday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in an
apparent terror attack, leaving at least 11 dead. The U.S. State Department
said American citizens were reportedly among the injured.
The militant Islamic group al-Shabab,
based in neighboring Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack via
Twitter, saying it was in retaliation "for the lives of innocent
Muslims" killed by Kenyan forces leading an African Union offensive
against al-Shabab.
A witness said that gunmen armed with
AK-47s and grenades entered the mall around noon local time and told Muslims to
stand up and leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted, according to the AP.
Police helicopters circled above the
mall as armed police shouted "get out! get out!" and scores of
shoppers fled the building, Reuters reported. Smoke poured out of one entrance
of the high and witnesses said they heard grenade blasts.
Raw video: Sights and sounds outside
the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, as people escape armed
gunmen who stormed the center.
Joseph Ole Lenku, Kenya's Secretary for
Defense and Internal Affairs, later said government security forces had taken
over the mall and that the situation was "under control," but gunfire
could still be heard several hours after the attack began and al-Shabab claimed
its fighters were still inside battling the government forces.
Reports on the number of dead varied
widely.
Lenku said that 11 people were killed
and about 40 injured, while Nairobi's mortuary superintendent, Sammy
Nyongesa Jacob, told the AP that at least 23 bodies had been transported from
the scene.
U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Marie Harf called the attack a "senseless act of violence
that has resulted in death and injury for many innocent men, women, and
children."
She said that the department had
received reports that Americans were among the injured, but declined to provide
details, citing privacy concerns. Federal sources told NBC News that the FBI
was monitoring the situation and would take the lead if Americans are confirmed
to be among the casualties.
Lenku added that it was too early in
the investigation to declare who or what organization specifically was behind
Saturday’s attack.
But Al-Shabab tweeted that the attack
was “retribution.” The group vowed in late 2011 to carry out a
large-scale attack in Nairobi in retaliation for Kenya's sending of troops into
Somalia to fight the Islamic insurgents and had specifically threatened the
Westgate mall, a popular spot for wealthy Kenyans and tourists.
Witnesses told Reuters that they saw
about five armed assailants storm the beige stone building and that the
incident appeared to be an attack rather than an armed robbery.
"They don't seem like thugs, this
is not a robbery incident," Yukeh Mannasseh, who was on the mall's top
floor when the shooting started, told the news agency. "It seems like an
attack. The guards who saw them said they were shooting
indiscriminately."
One witness who identified himself as
Taha said he heard the screech of brakes followed moments later by an explosion
and then sustained gunfire from the ground floor.
NBC News' Kristen Welker and Charlene
Gubash and Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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