dagblog - Comments for "Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall"

Terror in Westgate mall: the

artappraiser — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 17:19:26 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

Terror in Westgate mall: the full story of the attacks that devastated Kenya
By Daniel Howden in Nairobi, theguardian.com, 4 October 2013

It is two weeks since al-Shabaab militants brought mayhem to an upmarket shopping centre in Nairobi, executing unarmed men, women and children as they tried to hide or flee. At least 67 people were killed. Now, a detailed investigation based on interviews with survivors, their relatives and members of the Kenyan security forces reveals how incompetence and infighting among the authorities left the attackers free to continue their slaughter for 80 hours [....]

8-year old Muslim girl and

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:49:06 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

8-year old Muslim girl and her Muslim mother among the victims, guess the perps weren't so good at their sorting:

The Daily Telegraph quoted a British businessman, Louis Bawa, who confirmed the deaths of his daughter Jenah, 8, and his wife Zahira, as saying his “heart just stopped” when he was asked to identify them from photographs of victims taken at the mall. “The people who did this, they are vigilantes, they are animals,” he told the newspaper. “They are using religion as an excuse to kill people. Zahira and Jenah were Muslims, but these animals just shot them the same as all of the others.”

He said he had spoken to his daughter last week and promised “to buy her any present in the world” if she did well on her exams. She told him to “start saving up” because she wanted him to buy her a pony and said “she was going to work very hard.” Jenah’s 12-year-old cousin, Ajay Bawa, said, “I don’t understand how people can kill 8- and 9-year-olds.”

from

Some of the Victims of the Attack in Kenya
By Christine Hauser, The Lede @ nytimes.com, Sept. 24, 2013

Authorities and militants

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:29:38 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

Authorities and militants take Nairobi battle to Twitter
By Jastinder Khera, BBC News, 24 Sept., 2013

[....]

[...] arguably the most important use of social media by the authorities is to rally Kenyans behind the security forces as they respond to the attack using the hashtags #WeAreOne and #WithOneAccord, a reference to the Kenyan national anthem.

The prevailing mood among Kenyans on Twitter appears to be one of support for the operation against the militants and a feeling of solidarity in a time of crisis.

Kenyans are among the most active users of Twitter in Africa and have also been using social media in order to come together and organise initiatives to help the victims of the attack.

Many shared information about where to give blood - blogger Robert Alai shared a picture of children on roller-skates holding placards urging Kenyans to donate blood.

Others shared stories of Kenyans bringing food to journalists covering the siege and the security forces posted near the centre.

Shabaab threatens 'big

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:14:41 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

Shabaab threatens 'big surprise' as siege at Kenyan mall continues
By Bill Roggio, Threat Matrix @ Long War Journal, September 24, 2013 10:20 AM

As Shabaab fighters continue to hold out inside the Westgate Mall in Kenya for the fourth day after assaulting the upscale shopping center on Saturday

[....]

One final point: Shabaab, which is often incorrectly described by some terrorism analysts as a local jihadist group interested only in taking control of Somalia, made clear in another tweet that it is striving to implement a global Islamic Caliphate (Khilaafa):

A new era is on the horizon. A new dawn, illuminating the path towards #Khilaafa. It's a paradigm shift
[....]

If true, this news is

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:33:18 +0000

In reply to Kenyan official: ?Two or

If true, this news is especially interesting because an American former member of Al-Shabaab, Omar Hammami, was probably finally assassinated by other Al-Shabaab in Somalia on Sept. 12, after being on the run from them concerning disagreements about how to do do things, and after allies of his were also hunted down and assassinated.

Jihadist expert J.M. Berger wrote a fascinating essay for Foreign Policy, published on Sept. 16, relating his online relationship of several years (often up close and personal) with Hammami. In it, he lays out a pretty convincing narrative of Hammami's dissociation from Al-Shabaab and his death by them just a couple of weeks ago, even though he remained a true believer in Al Qaeda ideals to the end:

Omar and Me
My strange, frustrating relationship with an American terrorist.
BY J.M. BERGER | SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

I don't know exactly when I began to worry I had become friends with a terrorist. [....]

From the moment I first saw him in a video in April 2009, I knew Omar Hammami was a terrorist who had embraced al Qaeda's global campaign. And when he first became aware of me, he knew I was on the other side of the apocalyptic conflict he imagined, an unabashedly Western writer and analyst working to shine a light on terrorist operations and violent ideologies.

Hammami grew up in a Muslim-Christian family in Daphne, Alabama. His upbringing was not particularly religious [....]

Kenyan official: ?Two or

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:10:55 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

Kenyan official: ‘Two or three Americans’ among the gunmen at Nairobi mall
By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post, Updated: Monday, September 23, 2:37 PM

NAIROBI —

[BREAKING NEWS: The Kenyan foreign minister, Amina Mohamed, says “two or three” Americans are among the gunmen. Mohamed described them as “young men, about between maybe 18 and 19,” and of Somali or Arab origin.]

[....]

Gen. Julius Karangi, the chief of the Kenyan Defense Forces, said the jihadists inside the mall are “clearly a multinational collection from all over the world” — though he did not offer details. Added Karangi: “We are fighting global terrorism here.”

But the nationalities of the attackers remained unknown. A Twitter posting Sunday that was purportedly from al-Shabab described several of the attackers as Americans, but the militant group said Monday — in a different tweet — that it had not sent the earlier message and had not released the names or any other details about the individuals involved in the attack.

The later tweet was verified by the SITE Monitoring Service, which tracks statements by extremist groups.

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said officials were checking the initial report, that Americans were among the attackers, but had not been able to confirm it.

[....]

The likely reason why the

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 21:02:33 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

The likely reason why the attackers chose Westgate became apparent as one embassy after another confirmed that some of its citizens had been murdered in the assault.

David Cameron confirmed that three Britons had died, and said: "We should prepare ourselves for further bad news." France said that two of its citizens had died, both women. Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper said that two Canadians had died, one of them a diplomat named as Annemarie Desloges, who served in Canada's high commission to Kenya.

The US government said that the wife of one of its citizens working for the US Agency for International Development had been killed, while four Americans were injured.

From

Kenya mall siege: 'final assault' begins
Witnesses in Nairobi report huge blast as security forces enter shopping centre where armed militants are holding 30 hostages
By Guy Alexander in Nairobi, The Guardian, 22 September 2013 15.37 ET

Note some info. in there about what is currently happening:

....began with a barrage of gunfire at 7am local time as Kenyan soldiers attempted to storm their way into the ground floor entrance to the mall's largest shop, the Nakumatt supermarket.

One of the soldiers who took part in the attack, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that two of Kenyan troops had been killed as they came under sustained heavy fire, including what appeared to be rocket propelled grenades. "They were very intelligent and they are well-armed," he told the Guardian.

He said that the frequent exchanges of fire between security services and the attackers had been designed to drain their ammunition supplies.

A number of eyewitnesses inside the security cordon in the Westlands neighbourhood of Nairobi said that Kenyan special forces who had been assembling outside during the day appeared to be being assisted by foreign military advisers.

Kenyan police, working with officers from the British high commission succeeded overnight on Saturday in erecting a security cordon around the busy commercial district but fascinated crowds gathered on a hillside overlooking the mall and crowded access roads on all sides....

Wikipedia is doing a very

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 21:32:20 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

Wikipedia is doing a very good job at constantly updating all pertinent information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate_centre_shooting

My relatives among 39 killed

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 21:23:59 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

My relatives among 39 killed in mall siege – President Uhuru
By Olive Burrows, Capital News (Nairobi), September 21, 2013

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 21 – A resolute President Uhuru Kenyatta has told the terrorists responsible for the deaths of 39 Kenyans at the Westgate mall on Saturday that they have not won the day.

He said the Kenyan spirit had not been broken and that they only succeeded in strengthening the nation’s resolve in fighting terrorism, “we remain as brave and invincible as the lions on our coat of arms,” he said.

He went on to reveal that he too had lost, “very close family members,” in Saturday’s attack and promised to hunt down and bring to book those responsible for the attack.

He went on to assure the families of those who lost their loved ones in the attack and the 150 who were injured of the government’s support [....]

Police ignored me as I exposed Westgate terrorist – survivor
By Kennedy Kangethe, Capital News (Nairobi), September 21, 2013

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 21 – A survivor of the Westgate terrorist attack has recounted how police ignored him when he pointed to them one of the gunmen who disguised himself as a victim.

The witness told how the gunman changed his clothes and mingled with other victims before he vanished in the crowd outside the mall.

“The man is of Arab origin, he changed his clothes on first floor and left with the victims as they were being rescued,” he said. “When I saw him outside the building I told the police this is one of the gunmen but they did not heed to my plea but asked me to get out.”

The account raised fears most of the attackers may have escaped during the confusion, although some were detained or killed during the mayhem [....]

'They threw grenades like

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 21:08:55 +0000

In reply to Al-Shabaab tweet: No negotiations at Kenyan mall

'They threw grenades like maize to chickens'

some survivor reports compiled @ The Observer.\

An especially chilling excerpt:

Joshua Hakim, who had stopped for a snack on his way to watch a rugby match, saw gunmen, some of whom looked to be teenagers, strapped with ammunition belts, carrying AK-47 assault rifles. "They were firing indiscriminately, they shot a lot of people," he said. During a lull in the firing the attackers called out in Swahili, a language widely spoken in Kenya and the rest of east Africa, for Muslims to identify themselves and leave.

Covering the Christian name on his ID with his thumb he approached one of the attackers, whom he described as Somali, and showed them the plastic card. "They told me to go. Then an Indian man came forward and they said, 'What is the name of Muhammad's mother?' When he couldn't answer they just shot him."