'Islamist' Turkey building Military training camp in Somalia only to mine later for copper, uranium and gold?

'Islamist' Turkey building Military training camp in Somalia only to mine later for copper, uranium and gold?  HT: Abdbozkurt.

Turkey has finished its first military base in Somalia and will help train the country’s army to fight the deadly al-Shabaab terror group, a senior Turkish source told Anadolu Agency on Oct. 1.

A Turkish military attache speaking on condition of anonymity said the U.N.-backed base will be operational by the start of 2017.

About 200 Turkish officers will be deployed to the facility in Mogadishu -the Somali capital - to deliver the first stage of training to over 10,000 Somali National Army troops and others soldiers from across Africa, he confirmed.

Turkish military officials in Somalia also said Ankara will open a firm in Mogadishu to make Somali military uniforms.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Sept. 30, Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamed praised Turkey’s involvement in the Horn of Africa country:

"Turkey’s prominent role in Somalia can be seen at all levels: humanitarian, infrastructure, health and investment. Hmmm..........So far the 'Official version for the public' now to behind the 'Palace doors of the 'caliph'

#Erdogan family is not only involved in gold prospects in #Cerattepe but also shown interest in #Somalia because of gold & copper potential. https://t.co/3obt7rODnb

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

A confidential report leaked from #Erdogan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak reveals #Turkey gov't studied mining potential in #Somalia in 2011.

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

A 5-page document, prepared by #Turkey's development & cooperation agency TİKA head Serdar Çam, details many aspects of #Somalia engagement pic.twitter.com/Ej1rlM1dTR

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

Serdar Cam wrote in the report that the real reason for failed state in #Somalia is due to global powers' desire to reserve the territory

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

#Erdogan's henchman claimed that global powers will occupy territory of #Somalia in the future when they feel the need for that.

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

The TİKA report was dated 15 August 2011, sent to #Erdogan & his advisors. pic.twitter.com/JAE7maBqnq

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

The report sent on 16 Aug. 2011 by Mustafa Varank, #Erdogan's aide, to Erdogan family members Berat, son Bilal, daughters Sümeyye, & Esra pic.twitter.com/OIpYpCkaoH

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

Turkish gov't employee says Somalia has copper & uranium mines, which suggest potential for gold reserves in the country.

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 28, 2016

And then there's this from Erdogan's favorite 'humanitarian group' IHH, can't hurt to be on both sides of the fence:

IHH Delivers Aid to Somali Terrorist Group Al Shabaab.

Somalia: Senior Al Shabaab officials discussing allegiance to ISIL terrorist group.

Somalia: Senior Al Shabaab officials discussing allegiance to ISIL terrorist group. (garoweonline).

Senior Al Shabaab officials including its Chief Abu Ubaidah have been discussing loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) amid military setbacks on frontlines in central and southern Somalia, sources familiar with the matter told Garowe Online.

Abu Ubaidah is believed to have eased his stance towards ISIL, and told militant ideologues to cut off ties with al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawihiri.

The gathering is underway in the town of Jilib , some 97km north of the southern port city of Kismayo.

The tight secrecy of the meeting made details more convoluted, with sources telling GO that Mahad Karate, Ubu Ubaidah’s deputy agreed to the allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) which is seeking to extend its influence into East Africa.

“This is not strange, and it seems that Al Shabaab could be following in the footsteps of Boko Haram at the height of dire funds shortage, and blistering loss of grounds against allied forces,” said an analyst who asked not to be named. Al Shabaab merged al-Qaeda in 2012. Eversince, militants have been adhering to apostasy principles and the communications style of the network.

In March, ISIL leader reportedly sent invitation to Al Shabaab Chief Abu Ubaidah, encouraging the Somali militant group to wage Jihad on neighboring countries, notably Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Boko Haram fighters aligned themselves with ISIL in early March in well produced audio message posted online.

If the discussion succumbs to ISIL loyalty, analysts predict unparalleled shuttle of foreign Jihadists. Hmmmm.......The Turkish organization IHH provides humanitarian assistance to the famine-stricken regions of Somalia and Al Shabaab. Same guys who 'deliver' arms to ISIL,

Video - Recording shows al-Shabaab gun battle in which British jihadi was killed

Video - Recording shows al-Shabaab gun battle in which British jihadi was killed.(ITV).

The shadows are lengthening in the bushland of northern Kenya as two cells of Al Qaeda inspired Al Shabaab fighters come together for their final briefing in the hours before launching a blood fuelled terror attack.

At their very heart is the heavily bearded British Muslim-convert Thomas Evans, a large dagger tucked behind the ammunition pouches strapped to his chest.

The Briton from the small Buckinghamshire village of Wooburn Green - known as the 'White Beast' because of his brutality - is clearly relaxed and smiles as he embraces fellow Islamist fighters who have crossed in groups from the Al Shabaab heartland of Somalia to team up with Kenyan-based terrorists in preparation for their dawn operations.

Hours later the 25 year-old is dead, shot as he helped lead an assault on the Kenyan Defence Force base – the first case of a British Islamist militant being killed on Kenyan soil.

Exclusive footage obtained by ITV News shows a fierce gun battle between al-Shabaab militants and Kenyan security forces in which a British jihadi was killed.

Thomas Evans was filming during the raid on a military base in Lamu County, on Kenya's northern coast, when militants were met with a barrage of gunfire from troops.

As a gunfight ensues, Evans appears to be hit and the camera falls to the ground.

Reports of Evans' death surfaced earlier this month.

He was believed to have converted to Islam aged 19 before travelling to join the extremist group in 2012. The footage also offers a unique insight into how the terror group prepare for attacks against Kenyan security forces.

In one clip, dozens of armed militants - including Evans - can be seen embracing and chanting as they prepare for the attack.Read and see the full story here and more here.

Somali PM says al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane killed in U.S. strike

Somali PM says al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane killed in U.S. strike. (Taz).

The Somali prime minister said on Friday that Ahmed Godane, head of the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, was killed in a U.S. strike this week, although the group that is waging an insurgency against the government has yet to Al Arabiya reported.

U.S. officials had said on Wednesday that they were still checking to see whether Monday's U.S. missile strike on an al Shabaab encampment had killed Godane, who was appointed leader in 2008 after his predecessor was killed in a U.S. attack.

"We tell the Somalis that Godane is dead," Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed said on his Facebook page, the first government confirmation of his death.

Al Qaeda-linked militants attack Somali presidential compound.

Al Qaeda-linked militants attack Somali presidential compound. (Taz).

Al Qaeda-linked militants al Shabaab attacked the Somali presidential palace compound on Friday, blasting through a gate with a car bomb and engaging in a fierce gun battle with African peacekeepers, police said.

Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on the heavily fortified compound in Mogadishu, known as Villa Somalia, but the Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was unharmed, Reuters reported.

"President just called me to say he's unharmed. Attack on Villa Somalia had failed. Sadly some lives lost," U.N. Special Representative Nick Kay wrote on his official Twitter feed.It was not immediately clear how many people were killed.

In the past few weeks, Mogadishu has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks claimed by al Shabaab, who were pushed out of the city in mid-2011 but have continued to wage a sustained guerrilla campaign.
Friday's battle took place at the house of Somalia's top military commander, General Dahir Aden Indha Qarshe, located in the same compound and near the presidential palace building, Abdikadir Ahmed, a senior police officer, told Reuters.

"The al Shabaab fighters who attacked the palace were about ten men in military uniform and the red hats [worn by the palace guards]," Hussein Farah, a senior police officer at the scene, told Reuters.

"They had three cars. One was a car bomb and the other cars were carrying well-armed fighters," he said.
"All the Shabaab fighters perished, some blew up themselves while others were shot dead. Several government guards also died. Now the fighting is over, and scattered on the scene is human flesh and blood."
At least seven Somalis were killed when a remote-controlled bomb aimed at a U.N. convoy tore through cars and tea shops just outside the capital's international airport last week.Hmmmm......"The war on terror is over"....yeah sure.

Somalia’s al-Shabaab militia bans use of internet

Somalia’s al-Shabaab militia bans use of internet.(Taz).

An Islamist militia controlling parts of Somalia has banned the use of the internet for fear of spying and surveillance on its operations in the Horn of Africa country, dpa reported.

Internet providers must sever services on mobile phones and using fibre optic communications within 15 days, al-Shabaab said in a statement aired on Andulus, one of its radio stations, late Wednesday.

Companies refusing to comply with the ban "would be seen as collaborating with the enemy and necessary steps would be taken against them in compliance with sharia, or Islamic law," the statement said.

Al-Shabaab controls mainly rural areas in central and southern Somalia, but there was concern that the internet ban could have a wider effect.

"Some of the main antennas transmitting the signals belong to companies here in Mogadishu" and they would have to be disabled for the ban to enter into force, one operator for a local telecommunications company said on the condition of anonymity.

Somalia's largest telecommunications operator, Hormuud Telecom, which has signed an agreement with South Africa's Liquid Telecom to link Somalia with an African fibre optic network, did not issue an immediate comment.

African Union peacekeepers in Somalia and Kenyan troops have stepped up their operations against al-Shabaab, which is believed to be linked with al-Qaeda, after its attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that left 67 people dead in September.

Kenya’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS) Knew an Attack Would Happen!

Kenya’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS) Knew an Attack Would Happen!HT: TheIndependent.

Kenyan authorities are also facing questions over whether they had any intelligence on an impending attack, which a Somali al-Shabaab chief said was a “message to Westerners” who had “backed Kenya’s invasion [of Somalia],” a reference to Kenya’s 2011 incursion aimed at crushing the militant movement.

Kenya’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS), widely accused by politicians of failing to pick up chatter about the attack, has insisted it did warn the police and officials inside the President’s office before the Westgate siege, but its warnings went unheeded, The Star reported.

According to the same report, a pregnant policewoman avoided Westgate after her brother, who works for Kenyan intelligence, warned her of a terror attack. “She has told police that her brother who is a NIS officer warned her not to visit Westgate that Saturday because she would not be able to run,” a senior officer was quoted as saying.

‘Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers’: Horrific claims of torture emerge from Kenyan mall

More info here.

‘Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers’: Horrific claims of torture emerge from Kenyan mall.(DM).

• Kenyan soldiers claim to find scenes of torture by mall terrorists
• They say children found dead in food fridges with knives still in bodies
• Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed

Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling.

Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.

Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed.
‘You find people with hooks hanging from the roof,’ said one Kenyan doctor, who asked not to be named. ‘They removed eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood. ‘They drive knives inside a child’s body. 'Actually if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers. Here it was pain.’

Most of the defeated terrorists, meanwhile, were reportedly discovered ‘burnt to ashes’, set alight by the last extremist standing to try to protect their identities.

The horrifying details came yesterday as the first pictures emerged from within the wreckage of the building, showing piles of bodies left strewn across the floor.‘A third of the mall was destroyed in the battle between terrorists and Kenyan troops. Read the full story here.

Video shows gaping crater at Kenya's shattered mall, as witnesses say terrorists slit victims' throats.

Video shows gaping crater at Kenya's shattered mall, as witnesses say terrorists slit victims' throats.(DM).

Shocking new video today revealed the true extent of the destruction caused to the Nairobi shopping centre during the four-day battle between Kenyan forces and Islamic militants.

Aerial footage shows a gaping hole in the mall's roof after three storeys collapsed when Kenyan soldiers fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the complex, knocking out a support column, a government official said.

The collapse happened on Monday when government troops launched a massive assault on the mall where up to 150 people are thought to have been killed.

During the firefight, hostages reportedly had their throats slashed from ear to ear and were thrown screaming from third-floor balconies as the siege came to a bloody end.

Shell-shocked Kenyan troops said the inside of the Israeli-run mall resembled a ‘scene from a horror movie’ with blood spattered everywhere and dead bodies strewn across the floor.

Between 10 and 15 terrorists are thought to have stormed the mall on Saturday, according to Kenyan officials. The police said five insurgents were killed in the battle and at least 10 taken into custody.

When Kenyan troops launched their assault to retake the mall, they didn't just face bullets from AK-47 rifles. They found themselves up against an arsenal of booby-trap explosives, heavy-calibre machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and tens of thousands of live rounds.

Much of this would very unlikely have been carried into the complex by the Al Shabaab militia, say security sources. They say they were much more likely to have been smuggled in beforehand.

This adds weight to claims that the group hired a women’s clothes shop in the mall beforehand to stash their weapons.

It is also thought English-speaking foreign fighters were carefully selected and plans of the huge Westgate mall studied down to the ventilation ducts.

This raises questions about how intelligence agencies failed to pick up on such an elaborately planned attack. A British defence source told the Independent: 'This was hardly a spontaneous event, the way these guys were deployed... the fact they could replenish their ammunition shows a lot of pre-planning.'

Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said forensic experts from the US, Israel, Britain, Germany and Canada were taking part in trying to reconstruct the scene at the mall. He said results would not be ready for a week.

Mortuaries in Nairobi have been prepared for the last two days for a large influx of bodies still in the mall. Officials have said the shopping centre, which the terrorists held for four days, could hold dozens more bodies.

The government has confirmed 72 total deaths: 61 civilians, six security forces and five attackers. The Red Cross says 71 people remain missing.

At least 12 Muslims are among the civilians killed, according to The Times.

Al-Shabab said the Kenyan government assault team carried out 'a demolition' of the building, burying 137 hostages in the debris. A government spokesman denied the claim and said Kenyan forces were clearing all rooms, firing as they moved and encountering no one. Read the full story here.

Video - Shabab Al-Mujahideen Recruitment Video Features Three Minnesota Men Killed in Somalia terrorist acts.

KMSP-TV
 
Video - Shabab Al-Mujahideen Recruitment Video Features Three Minnesota Men Killed in Somalia terrorist acts.HT: Memri.

Video - Latest live updates from Niarobi Westgate Mall, Ten suspects arrested for questioning.

Live streaming video by Ustream
Ten suspects arrested for questioning, two were attempting to leave the country at the airport.

Mall is rigged with explosives, Sporadic explosions, army says they're in control. 

Breaking News! All SIX Terrorist Neutralized in Nairobi Mall

Live streaming video by Ustream
No word on the condition of the hostages, Bomb Squads are working on Boobytraps.

Updates as they become available, 

Spokesperson defusing the boobytraps could take a short or long time depending on sofistication

Live Video report Niarobi mall attack

Live streaming video by Ustream
Almost all hostages evacuated, official dead count 62

Kenyan Terror raid 'led by white widow': Gang mastermind in veil barked orders at gunmen in mall.

Kenyan Terror raid 'led by white widow': Gang mastermind in veil barked orders at gunmen in mall.(DM).

The terror attack on a Kenyan shopping centre that has left 68 dead was being led by the white English widow of a 7/7 bomber, it was claimed last night.

Soldiers said a white woman wearing a veil was shouting orders to gunmen in Arabic during the bloody massacre inside the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.

Islamist terror group Al Shabaab claimed it carried out the atrocity in which three Britons were killed and 175 people were left injured.

It said last night on Twitter that Samantha Lewthwaite, the ‘white widow’ of London 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was ‘in their ranks’ and a ‘brave lady’.

Fifteen hostages were still trapped inside the shopping centre after more than 24 hours of carnage.

The attack saw men, women and children slaughtered if they could not recite the Koran or name the mother of the Prophet Mohammed. As well as boasting Lewthwaite was with them, Al Shabaab claimed two British men from London, Liban Adam, 23, and Ahmed Nasir Shirdoon, 24, were among the ‘holy warriors’ in the attack.

The group is said to be highly organised, with huge amounts of ammunition as well as night vision equipment. They have destroyed CCTV cameras inside the shopping mall, meaning they cannot be watched.

With horrific cruelty, they have reportedly cut the hands off the bodies of their victims and burned their faces to try to conceal their identities.

Last night the terrorists were closed into the second and third floors of a storage warehouse in the mall. Soldiers claimed to have taken control of the ground and first floors. One said: ‘It is all being controlled by this muzungu [Swahili for white] woman. She is ordering them what to do. We are getting closer to them.’

Last night, as the bodies were still being counted at the shopping mall, one British woman was notably slow to join the condemnation.

For Samantha Lewthwaite, the daughter of a former British soldier who grew up attending school discos in Buckinghamshire, views these awful events as a cause for jubilation.

Kenyan anti-terror police revealed yesterday that Lewthwaite – who is known to many as the White Widow – may be the brains behind the operation to bring terror to the heart of Kenya, a country once synonymous with the sexual high-jinks of the Happy Valley expatriate set, but rapidly becoming a new battleground in the war between Islamists and the West.

‘I suspect this woman Lewthwaite is behind this attack,’ a senior anti-terror source told me last night as survivors described how a woman in a veil appeared to be commanding the other terrorists as they hunted down and killed non-Muslim shoppers. The idea that Lewthwaite might have led the assault herself is not far-fetched at all.

Having converted to Islam as a young woman and married a man who went on to be a 7/7 London suicide bomber, she has become a key figure in the terror group behind this weekend’s attack.

Lewthwaite has even been involved in training a group of all-female suicide attackers at camps in lawless neighbouring Somalia. It is an extraordinary, macabre journey into darkness for the 29-year-old, who grew up as a normal teenager in Aylesbury before meeting Jermaine Lindsay, a British Muslim, in an online chat room when she was 17. The pair married three years later.

When her husband was named as one of four suicide bombers who blew up Tube trains and a bus in 2005, killing 52 people, Lewthwaite initially condemned her late husband’s attack and denied any knowledge of his plan.

This was a lie. More than eight years later, Lewthwaite is one of Al Qaeda’s main recruiters in East Africa and is an official spokesman for Al Shabaab (The People), the terrorist group behind the horror in Nairobi.

As well as railing against ‘infidels in the West’, Lewthwaite had previously used a Twitter account to denounce a rival foreign terrorist in the text-speak of a teenager.

Known to her devoted followers as dada muzungu – Swahili for white sister – Lewthwaite moved to Kenya with her three children in 2007.

A small, dumpy woman, she cut off all links with her family in Britain and became immersed in East Africa’s Islamic terror networks, forging links with other British fanatics who had come to Kenya to wage ‘jihad’ against non-believers.

It was last year that details of Lewthwaite’s secret new life emerged in grisly detail. A white woman, later identified as Lewthwaite, had led a group of terrorists who fired grenades into a bar in Mombasa, the Kenyan coastal tourist resort popular with Britons.Hmmmm.....May God give her a swift and eternal lasting judgment. Read and see the full story here.More information here.

Update :Kenya live TV: 'All Terrorists are MALE '

Kenyan security forces exchange fire with hostage-holders as standoff at upscale shopping center enters third day.

Kenyan security forces exchange fire with hostage-holders as standoff at upscale shopping center enters third day.(TOI).

Loud explosions and sustained gunfire echoed on Monday morning around a Nairobi shopping mall where al-Qaeda-linked gunmen killed at least 69 people and have been holding dozens hostage since Saturday.

Three explosions could be heard, according to reports, along with bursts of rapid machine-gun fire, as Kenyan security forces apparently renewed their efforts to secure the release of the hostages inside and end the deadly siege at the Kenyan capital’s upscale Westgate shopping center.

A Kenyan military spokesman said that the fate of hostages inside the mall was not clear despite earlier statements that “most” of them had been rescued.

According to the Kenyan Red Cross 63 people are still missing and they are though to included hostages being held and those who may have been killed but are still inside the mall, AFP reported. At least 69 people have been confirmed killed, the Red Cross said.

Oguna said that many of the rescued hostages — who he said were mostly adults — were suffering from dehydration. An Associated Press reporter at a triage center next to the mall said no hostages ever showed up there.

Kenyan authorities said they would do their utmost to save hostages’ lives, but no officials could say precisely how many people were being held captive. Kenya’s Red Cross said in a statement, citing police, that 49 people had been reported missing. Officials did not make an explicit link but that number could give an indication of the number of people held captive.

Kenya’s Red Cross said the death toll rose to 68 after nine bodies were recovered Sunday. More than 175 people were injured, including many children, Kenyan officials said.

Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked rebel group, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack that specifically targeted non-Muslims, saying it was in retribution for Kenyan forces’ 2011 push into neighboring Somalia.

Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga told reporters that “quite a number” of people were being held hostage in two areas of the sprawling complex, which includes stores for such retail giants as Nike, Adidas and Bose. Many hostages were believed to be in a grocery and general department store called Nakumatt.

Kenyan security officials sought to reassure the families of hostages but implied that some of those being held could be killed.

“The priority is to save as many lives as possible,” said Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Lenku, adding that more than 1,000 people escaped the attack inside the mall on Saturday.

Westgate Mall is at least partially owned by Israelis, and reports circulated that Israeli commandos were on the ground to assist in the response. Four restaurants inside the mall are Israeli-run or owned.

In Israel, a senior defense official said there were no Israeli forces participating in an assault, but said it was possible that Israeli advisers were providing assistance. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a classified military issue, would not elaborate.Read the full story here.

Video - Nairobi ,Islamic terrorists publish a video, names and nationality of perpetrators - many Westerners.

Video - Nairobi ,Islamic terrorists publish a video, names and nationality of perpetrators - many Westerners.HT: DreuzeInfo.

Abdirizak Mouled 24 years' of Ontario Canada 

Ahmed Mohamed Isse, 22, of Saint Paul, Minnesota 

Abdifatah Osman Keenadiid. 24 years in Minneapolis 

Gen Mustafe Noorudiin. 27, of Kansas City. 

MO Sayid Nuh, 25, of Kismayu, Somalia Sa'd Daud 23 years,

Damascus Syria Abdishakur Sheikh Hassan 22, 

from Maine Shafie Die 25, of Tucson Arizona 

Mohammed Bader 25 years' of Aleppo Syria 

Ismael Guled, 23, Helsinky Finland 

Zaki Caraale Jama, 20 years' of Hargeisa, 

Somalia Shirdoon Nasir Ahmed, 24, 

of London GB Qasim Said Musa, 22, 

Garissa, Kenya Eliko Mamedoff, 27, 

Dagestan Abdelkarem Ali Mohamed, 21, of Illinois - See more at: http://www.dreuz.info/2013/09/attentat-de-nairobi-les-jihadistes-publient-une-video-et-les-noms-et-la-nationalite-des-mujahideen-avec-beaucoup-doccidentaux/#sthash.5GCjC80V.dpuf

Update:  NEW: U.S. official tells the TheBlaze Twitter account that sent out list of alleged Kenya mall attackers is authentic
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/0http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/22/cnn-some-of-the-kenya-mall-attackers-are-from-u-s/

Video - Live stream from Kenya TV Westmall reporting.

HT: DailyNotion.

6.28 Three choppers reportedly flying very low at the scene of the attack

6.00pm Our reporter Zadock Angira says security officers are on their final assault advancing towards the attackers.

5.58pm Final assault commenced, attackers hiding in a room with bullet proof window

4.58pm President Kenyatta says the security forces are doing all they can to secure the lives of those still in the mall.

4.54pm President currently addressing the press, says Kenya shall not relent on the war on terror.

4.05pm Israeli forces join Kenya battle to end deadly mall siege, AFP reports.

3.55pm UN Security Council issues a statement condemning the attacks at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi which has claimed at least 59 lives and injured 175.

3.26pm Deputy President William Ruto asks ICC to adjourn his trial so he can deal with the Westgate terror attack, Reuters reports.

2.14pm Police fire tear tear gas to disperse surging crowds.

Kenyan interior minister: 59 dead in islamic terrorists al-Shabaab mall attack.

Kenyan interior minister: 59 dead in islamic terrorists al-Shabaab mall attack.(AA).

Kenya's interior Cabinet secretary said on Sunday that at least 59 people were killed and 175 wounded in the attack by al-Qaeda-linked militants at an upscale mall in Nairobi.

"We still have hostages in the mall, and this makes the operation delicate. We have 59 people who have been killed so far," Joseph Ole Lenku said.
Lenku said Sunday that about 1,000 people have been rescued so far from the Westgate mall.

The gunmen remain inside with hostages nearly 24 hours after the attack was launched with grenades and assault rifles.

Lenku said that there are 10 to 15 attackers involved. He said that Kenyan forces have control of the security cameras inside the mall. Combined military and police forces have surrounded the building.
Somali al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group al-Shabaab said on Twitter that the attack was in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia.
“The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar (infidels) inside their own turf,” al-Shabaab said on Twitter, according to AFP.
“What Kenyans are witnessing at #Westgate is retributive justice for crimes committed by their military,” the group said.

The militants claim that its gunmen shot 100 people in the mall attack.
Twelve hours after masked gunmen stormed the shopping center, security forces were still attempting to secure the mall and neutralize the gunmen, according to the president.

Kenyan Shopping mall target of Islamic Terrorism was Jewish owned, 2 Canadians confirmed dead.

Kenyan Shopping mall target of Islamic Terrorism  was Jewish owned, 2 Canadians confirmed dead.(GlobalNews).

 Two Canadians have been killed in an attack on an upscale mall in Kenya’s capital Saturday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed in a statement. One of the dead has been identified as 29-year-old Annemarie Desloges, a Canadian diplomat. Her husband was with her at the time of the attack.

“The hearts and prayers of all Canadians go out to the families and friends of all those affected by this senseless tragedy, and we extend our deepest condolences to those suffering the loss of Annemarie Desloges, one of our diplomats who has died in the attack,” Harper said in a statement.

The statement also said Desloges was a “distinguished public servant” working as a liason officer with the Canadian Border Services Agency in Kenya.

Desloges came to Kenya two years ago from an embassy in New Delhi. She had worked for the Canadian government since 2008. Kenya’s president says 39 people died and more than 150 were wounded when armed gunmen stormed the upscale mall. An al Qaeda-linked militant group from Somali, al-Shabab, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Harper said the “cowardly, hateful act” should not go unpunished.

“Canadian staff at our mission are offering Kenyan authorities every possible assistance to bring the perpetrators of this heinous attack to justice.”

France’s president said that two French women were killed, and there were reports of American citizens injured, but the U.S. State Department said it had no further details.

Early Sunday morning, 12 hours after the attack began, gunmen remained holed up inside the mall with an unknown number of hostages. President Uhuru Kenyatta called the security operation under way “delicate” and said a top priority was to safeguard hostages.

As the attack unfolded shortly after noon Saturday, the al-Qaida-linked gunmen asked the victims they had cornered if they were Muslim: If the answer was yes, several witnesses said, those people were free to go. The non-Muslims were not.

Somalia’s Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility and said the attack was retribution for Kenyan forces’ 2011 push into Somalia. The rebels threatened more attacks.

Al-Shabab said on its Twitter feed that Kenyan security officials were trying to open negotiations. “There will be no negotiations whatsoever,” al-Shabab tweeted.

Witnesses said at least five gunmen – including at least one woman – first attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping centre that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores.

AP reported that the cafe attacked is called Artcaffe; Kenyan websites said the cafe is owned by local Israelis.

Gilad Millo, a Nairobi-based Israeli, said two Israeli men and a woman who were in the mall when the attack began were unharmed and safe.

Yariv Kedar, one of the three Israelis who was in the Artcaffe at the time, told Channel 2 he “heard the gunfire getting closer” and bullets whizzed “over our heads” before he managed to escape.

“We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot,” said Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, the restaurant with shady outdoor seating.

The mall’s ownership is Israeli, and security experts have long said the structure made an attractive terrorist target.Hmmm........AlShabab.......IHH.......Mavi Marmara!Read and see the full story here.More here.

Related:  Turkish Aid Officials  (IHH) Meet with Al-Shabaab

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Videos - Many children killed in Nairobi shopping mall shooting.Claims of 40 Bodies

Video - Many children killed in Nairobi shopping mall shooting.