First They Attacked A Mall, Then They Repelled SEAL Team Six: The Rise of Al Qaeda 2.0

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/al-shabaab-westgate-al-qaeda-20-2014-2



Few Americans had ever heard of al Shabaab before the fall of 2013. That changed on Sept. 21, when gunmen armed with AK-47s entered the Westgate Mall, a suburban-style shopping center in an upscale neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya, and began calmly, methodically hunting down and murdering shoppers, one by one. As seen on surveillance cameras, the killers are remarkably calm and unhurried, betraying not a hint of anxiety as they go about their grim work.

Meanwhile, the organization boasted about the attack on its Twitter feed, announcing, “The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar [infidels] inside their own turf.”

The massacre claimed the lives at least 67 civilians and injured 200, including several participants in a children’s cooking competition sponsored by a local radio station. The Kenyan military surrounded the mall and initiated a rescue operation, but it was four days before the siege ended, by which point al Shabaab — often translated as The Youth — had made a definitive and bloody mark on the international consciousness.

Even months later, there are conflicting accounts of how the attack was conducted, who was involved, and whether the perpetrators escaped, were captured, or died in the assault. Kenyan authorities, the FBI and the New York Police Department have offered diverging and evolving versions of what happened. After initial reports claiming there were up to 15 militants in the mall, Kenyan police and American investigators later said that the attack had been carried out by just four gunmen who were later killed by Kenyan troops. If just this handful of gunmen were involved, their ability to hold off the Kenyan Defense Forces for days — not to mention Israeli security advisors — was a stunning example of the power of asymmetric warfare.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/al-shabaab-westgate-al-qaeda-20-2014-2#ixzz2uiYZCEgI

[Historic NY]

1. Interesting.....

“One thing that the media does not tell,” he said, “is some of the weapons had to be sneaked inside Westgate before the attack. Everyone has to be searched by security. There was a connection that helped get the weapons in.”

Jamal confirmed that only four gunmen entered the mall on Sept. 21, as Kenyan officials later determined by examining closed-circuit video footage. But he added that the reason the attack was so successful and lasted so long is that other members of al Shabaab were already positioned inside, having infiltrated the Westgate as vendors, bribing police and mall security to look the other way.

[WhiteTara]

2. our brave new world. nt