Nairobi Hotel Attack Ended With At Least 14 People Killed

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the Nairobi hotel siege is over and all attackers were killed

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Nairobi Hotel Attack Ended With At Least 14 People Killed

A Nairobi hotel was attacked shortly after 3pm on Tuesday. Police stated it was a coordinated assault that began with an explosion in the parking lot, and then a suicide bomb blast in the hotel lobby that gravely wounded a number of guests.

The country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, declared early on Wednesday that the DusitD2 hotel in the centre of the Kenyan capital is secure and that “All the terrorists have been eliminated.”

Kenya’s security forces have killed all four Islamic extremist gunmen who attacked the luxury hotel and shopping complex confirming earlier reports that 14 civilians had died. More than 700 civilians have been safely evacuated, while a Briton and an American have been confirmed among the dead.

The attack was claimed by Al-Shabab, a militant Islamist organization based in neighboring Somalia and allied to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab was also responsible for the 2013 attack at the nearby Westgate Mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people. Similar to that attack, this one appeared aimed at wealthy Kenyans and foreigners, and it came a day after a magistrate ruled that three men must stand trial in connection to the Westgate Mall attack.

Moreover, Al-Shabab has sworn to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight it since 2011. Tuesday’s attack came exactly three years after an Al-Shabab attack on a Kenyan military base in Somalia took place, when about 140 Kenyan soldiers lost their lives. The same group has also attacked Kenya’s Garissa University in 2015 when they killed 147 people, mostly students.

Source: The Associated Press: apnews.com