21 confirmed dead in DusitD2 hotel complex terror attack in Nairobi
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Hundreds were forced to flee the bloodshed at the DusitD2 hotel and business complex in Kenya's Nairobi on Tuesday. Some 29 injured people have been admitted to local hospitals, and Kenya's Red Cross said 20 are still missing.
Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab said it was behind
the attack, which triggered a 19-hour security operation.
President
Uhuru Kenyatta said the siege ended with five jihadist attackers
"eliminated". Kenya has been a target for al-Shabab since October
2011, when it sent its army into Somalia to fight the jihadist group.
The BBC's Andrew Harding, in Nairobi, says cowering
groups of civilians were escorted to safety by security forces throughout
Tuesday night, amid sporadic bursts of gunfire and the boom of explosions that
continued well beyond dawn.
Many had spent hours hiding in their offices, or in bathrooms.
Many had spent hours hiding in their offices, or in bathrooms.
On the crowded street outside the large, upmarket complex, friends and
relatives embraced those who emerged and thanked Kenyan security forces.
Mourners have now begun to bury the dead.
In a televised address,
President Kenyatta said "every person that was involved in the funding,
planning and execution of this heinous act" would be
"relentlessly" pursued.
Two people believed to be
linked to the attack were arrested after raids on Wednesday, AFP reported.
According to Reuters news
agency, al-Shabab issued a statement calling the attack "a response"
to US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel.
Jerusalem is a sacred city
in Islam, Judaism and Christianity - and while Israel regards the whole of
Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, Palestinians claim
the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.
Victims?
Two Kenyan friends, Abdalla Dahir and Feisal Ahmed, were having lunch
together in the grounds of the hotel when the suicide bomber struck, Reuters
news agency reports. Friends described the pair as inseparable.
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