Kenya has begun a forensic
investigation into the weekend attack on a Nairobi shopping mall with the help
of the United States, Israel, Britain and others, the interior minister told a
news briefing on Wednesday.
"We have moved to the next
phase," Joseph ole Lenku said, adding agencies from Germany and Canada as
well as the police agency Interpol were also assisting. He said he did not
expect the death toll, now at 72, to rise significantly and only expected to
find more bodies of slain assailants.
For his part, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
said there had been no verification that Americans were involved in a deadly
attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.
Some U.S. news reports have said a small
number of Americans or U.S. residents might have been among those involved in a
weekend assault that killed dozens at Nairobi's Westgate mall.
Holder, speaking at an unrelated press
conference, said U.S. officials still are working with Kenyan officials to investigate
the attack.
Earlier, the militant
group behind the takeover of a Nairobi mall claimed Wednesday that Kenyan
government assault team carried out "a demolition" of the building,
burying 137 hostages in rubble. A government spokesman denied the claim and
said Kenyan forces were clearing all rooms, firing as they moved and
encountering no one.
In a series of tweets
from a Twitter account believed to be genuine, al-Shabab also said that
"having failed to defeat the mujahideen inside the mall, the Kenyan govt
disseminated chemical gases to end the siege." It did not specify which
gases, which could theoretically include anything from tear gas to poison.
Government spokesman
Manoah Esipisu told The Associated Press that no chemical weapons were used,
and that the collapse of floors in the mall was caused by a fire set by the
terrorists.
In another development,
a British man was arrested in Kenya following the terrorist attack, Britain's
Foreign Office said.
The agency said in a
statement that British officials are ready to provide assistance to the man.
Officials would not provide his name or details. He is believed to be in his
30s. Britain's Daily Mail newspaper said he was arrested Monday as he tried to
board a flight from Nairobi to Turkey with a bruised face and while acting
suspiciously.
Esipisu said floors of
the mall collapsed after a fire started by the al-Shabab attackers caused
structural weakness in a 3rd floor parking lot, which then came down onto the
second floor and brought it down onto the first, or ground floor. He said there
were known to be eight civilians in the rubble, which were included in the
government's official death estimate. There could be several terrorists also
buried, he said.
At the mall Wednesday
morning, gunshots could be heard. Esipisu said they were from Kenyan forces
going room to room in the large Westgate Mall, firing protectively before
entering unknown territory.
A high-ranking security
official involved in the investigations said it would take time to search the
whole mall before declaring that the terrorist threat had been crushed. That
official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss information not publicly
disclosed.
Al-Shabab, whose name means "The
Youth" in Arabic, first began threatening Kenya with a major terror attack
in late 2011, after Kenya sent troops into Somalia following a spate of
kidnappings of Westerners inside Kenya.
The al-Shabab extremists
stormed the mall on Saturday, throwing grenades and firing on civilians.
The group used Twitter
to say that Somalis have been suffering at the hands of Kenyan military
operations in Kenya, and the mall attack was revenge.
The militants
specifically targeted non-Muslims, and at least 18 foreigners were among the
dead, including six Britons, as well as citizens from France, Canada, the
Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China. Five
Americans were among the wounded.
AP/REUTERS