A Kenyan military spokesman today confirmed the names of the four fighters implicated in the attack on the upscale Westgate Mall in Kenya’s capital last month, an assault that turned into a four-day-long siege, killing at least 67 people.
Major Emmanuel Chirchir said the attackers were
Abu Baara al-Sudani,
Omar Nabhan,
Khattab al-Kene
and Umayr, .
The identities of the men come as a private television station in Nairobi obtained and broadcast the CCTV footage from the Nairobi mall. The footage shows no more than four attackers.
In the video, they are seen calmly walking through a storeroom inside the complex, holding machine guns. One of the men’s pant legs appears to be stained with blood, though he is not limping, and it is unclear if the blood is his, or that of his victims’.
The footage contradicts earlier government statements which indicated that between 10 to 15 attackers were involved in the 21 September attack.
Little is known about the identities of the attackers, beyond their names, except that al-Kene and Umayr are known members of al-Hijra, the Kenyan arm of al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in neighbouring Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia in 2011 that was aimed at flushing out the extremists.
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