Gunfire erupted briefly on Sunday
inside the Nairobi shopping mall where Islamist militants are holed up with
hostages, as day after at least 68 people were killed in an attack by the al
Shabaab group.
Shortly before the gunfire, which erupted
as Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta was addressing the nation, more than a
dozen security personnel dressed in green camouflage were seen moving into the
building, a Reuters witness near the scene said.
In his speech, Kenya's president
said security forces confronting militants in a Nairobi shopping mall had as
good a chance "as we can hope for" of neutralizing the attackers and
said Kenya wanted to confirm a claim of responsibility by Somali Islamists.
"The criminals are now located in one
place within the building. With the professionals on site, I assure Kenyans
that we have as good a chance to successfully neutralize the terrorists as we
can hope for," he said in an address.
He said Somali al Shabaab militants had
said they were behind the attack that began on Saturday, but Kenya was
undertaking investigations to "conclusively establish" who was
responsible.
Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Joseph Ole
Lenku told reporters, that the government believed there were 10 to 15 attackers,
saying they were investigating their identity but would not give details.
This as a combined police and military force
continued to surround an upscale Kenyan mall on Sunday, where a hostage
standoff with Islamic extremist attackers was ongoing.
Britain's Foreign Office said that three Britons have been confirmed killed in the attack, while Foreign Secretary William Hague chaired a meeting of the government's crisis committee in London to discuss the incident in the Kenyan capital.
Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities said Islamic extremist
attackers held an unknown number of hostages in the shopping centre located in
the Westlands area of Nairobi, after killing at least 68 and injuring 150 on
Saturday.
Trucks brought a fresh contingent of soldiers
from the Kenya Defense Forces to the mall shortly after dawn on Sunday morning.
A barrage of gunfire erupted from the Westgate
shopping mall at one point, according to Associated Press journalists at the
scene.
Moments later two wounded Kenyan security
forces were carried out.
Somalia's radical rebel group, al-Shabab,
claimed responsibility for the attack in which they specifically targeted
non-Muslims.
However, lawyers for Kenyan deputy president William Ruto asked judges to adjourn his International Criminal Court (ICC) trial to allow him to return home to deal with the attack, according to a court filing seen by Reuters on Sunday.
In the filing, lawyers say Ruto, who is in the Hague defending himself against charges of crimes against humanity over his alleged involvement in a wave of violence after the 2007 elections, is needed at home to help with security briefings and consultations.
POSITIONS:
Israeli advisers are
helping Kenya formulate a strategy to end a siege at a Nairobi shopping mall
where Islamist militants have killed at least 68 people and are holding
hostages, an Israeli security source said on Sunday.
"There are Israeli advisers helping
with the negotiating strategy, but no Israelis involved in any imminent
storming operation," said the source, who gave no further details and
asked not to be identified.
In turn, France said two of its citizens had been
killed, and Canada said two Canadians had died, including a 29-year-old
diplomat.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said there
were no Americans among the dead but that several US citizens had been hurt
and the wife of a US diplomat working for the US Agency for International
Development was killed.
Kerry said the United States had offered
assistance to the Kenyan government.
"The perpetrators of this heinous act must
be brought to justice, and we have offered our full support to the Kenyan
Government to do so," he said in his statement.
REUTERS/AP
To watch the full report, please click on the video above