6 Oct 2013

Kenya names mall attack suspects

5:00 pm on 6 October 2013

The Kenyan military has released the names of four of the gunmen it says carried out a deadly attack on a shopping centre in Nairobi.

The al-Shabab militant group has said it carried out the attack on the Westgate mall in which at least 67 people were killed during a four day siege.

Kenya said previously 10-15 militants had been involved, but police chief David Kimaiyo says it is now believed the figure may be four to six.

New CCTV footage was aired showing four attackers calmly walking through a room in the mall holding machine guns, the BBC reports.

The Kenyan military said four men shown in the video - Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and Umayr - were killed during the standoff.

Mr Kimaiyo also said that wanted British woman Samantha Lewthwaite had not been involved.

"We have also established that she was not part of the attackers in the building. There was no woman," he said.

Ms Lewthwaite, 29, is the widow of one of the four suicide bombers who attacked London on 7 July 2005.

Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has said the attack on the mall was in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.

On Saturday, Islamist fighters in southern Somalia said Western forces had launched a night-time raid on one of their bases.

No-one has admitted the attack. US and French special forces have carried out raids in Somalia in recent years.

It is not clear whether the raid was linked to Westgate.

Questions raised over infiltration of security services

Questions have arisen over whether Kenyan security services have been infiltrated by people who fed the terrorists information.

Two of the gunmen were apparently known to security officials, which Kenyan security expert George Musamali says is worrying.

He says they have been on the run from security agencies for quite some time which means they have been in the country for some time but have not been arrested.