Kenya forces end deadly hotel siege

Kenyan security forces have killed the militants who stormed an upscale Nairobi hotel complex, taking at least 14 lives and forcing hundreds of others to make terrifying escapes, the government said on Wednesday.

More than 700 civilians were evacuated from the dusitD2 complex after a 20 hour siege that echoed a 2013 assault that killed 67 people in Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre in the same area.

Some hid under desks as bullets shattered plate-glass doors.

Others jumped from windows, or ran out under fire.

“The security operation at dusit complex is over, and all the terrorists eliminated,” President Uhuru Kenyatta told the nation, looking drained and grave.

“We can confirm that 14 innocent lives were lost through the hands of these murderous terrorists.”

Kenyatta did not specify how many assailants there were, but CCTV clips showed at least five dressed in black.

One is seen waiting outside the restaurant before blowing himself up in a cloud of debris.

Four others then shoot assault rifles across the car park.

The attack was claimed by Somali group al-Shabaab, an alQaeda affiliate fighting an insurgency to topple the weak UN-backed government and impose strict Islamic law.

Air strikes against the group have stepped up under US President Donald Trump, but Tuesday’s attack showed it retains ability to strike outside Somalia’s borders.

Neighbouring Kenya, a hub for expatriates, became a frequent target for al-Shabaab after sending troops into Somalia to try to create a buffer zone along the long, porous border.

At least two groups of people were still trapped inside the hotel complex at dawn, and shots continued to ring out.

Some sent out messages begging for medical help.

Eleven Kenyans, an American and a Briton were among the casualties, morgue staff said.

Some victims had been dining in the Secret Garden restaurant and lay slumped at tables.

The complex is home to offices of international companies including Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser, Pernod Ricard, Dow Chemical and SAP, as well as the dusitD2 hotel, part of Thai group Dusit Thani.

Hiram Macharia, a marketing executive at LG Electronics, heard the first blast at about 3pm.

“I grabbed a fire extinguisher and we started going downstairs. Then we saw two of the attackers firing at the elevators and we turned back.

“We hid under desks in our office,” he said.

“They were firing twice at each of the elevator doors and the two staircase doors on each floor as they walked up the building. One of them fired at our office doors, entered slightly and then moved on.”

Macharia hid in his office, but one colleague ran to the roof and was shot dead there.

The overnight blasts and shots undercut assurances from the interior minister on Tuesday evening that the complex was secured, provoking anger and scorn from some at the scene.

But the initial response on social media was largely supportive of security forces.

They appeared to have avoided the mistakes made at the 2013 attack, when police and soldiers shot at each other, then soldiers looted the mall.

Mamadou Dia was on a business trip from Paris for STP Consultants when he ended up huddled in a room with Chinese and Canadian residents of the hotel and a waiter who worked there.

“They told us by text that the police knew we were in that room and they would come, and 90 minutes later, the police came to evacuate us.”

As armed officers escorted them out, the attackers started shooting at them “like snipers,” he said, adding that police had fired back.

Families who went to Nairobi’s Chiromo morgue were told they could not view bodies until a forensic investigation had been performed, provoking grief and anger.

The family of a missing 35-year-old man collapsed upon hearing a body had arrived with his identification papers.