Islamists claim gun attack on Nairobi mall, at least 39 dead
Source: Reuters
Islamists claim gun attack on Nairobi mall, at least 39 dead
By Edmund Blair and Richard Lough
NAIROBI | Sat Sep 21, 2013 5:35pm EDT
(Reuters) - Gunmen stormed a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Saturday, killing at least 39 people including close relatives of Kenya's president and children, in an attack claimed by the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab.
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Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and is battling Kenyan and other African peacekeepers in Somalia, had repeatedly threatened attacks on Kenyan soil if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of the Horn of Africa country.
"The Kenyan govt (government) is pleading with our Mujahideen (holy warriors) inside the mall for negotiations," the group said under its official Twitter handle @HSM_Press. "There will be no negotiations whatsoever at #Westgate."
Another al Shabaab tweet read: "For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it's time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land."
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Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/21/us-kenya-attack-idUSBRE98K03V20130921