NAIROBI: Bodies have been retrieved from Kenya’s Westgate mall following a brutal siege by Islamist gunmen, police said yesterday, as the extremists warned “rivers of blood” would flow in fresh attacks.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has said a formal inquiry will be launched into apparent security lapses during the deadly assault last week on the shopping complex, in which at least 67 were killed, with 39 more listed as missing. Shopkeepers have complained their stores in the upmarket centre have been completely looted.
Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab, who claimed responsibility for the attack, threatened to step up militant attacks against Kenya, after Nairobi refused to pull its troops out of Somalia. “We will strike Kenyans where it hurts the most, turn their cities into graveyards and rivers of blood will flow in Nairobi,” Al Shabaab said.
Part of the mall’s rooftop carpark collapsed after explosions and a fierce fire. As many as nine bodies have been retrieved from the charred rubble of the mall, some badly damaged in the intense fire that gutted part of the complex. “Some of the bodies are not recognisable and need DNA testing to get them properly identified, some are badly damaged,” a senior police source said.
Afp
