NAIROBI: The plot was hatched weeks or months ago on Somali soil,
by the al-Shabaab's "external operations arm," officials say. A team of
English-speaking foreign fighters was carefully selected, along with a
target: Nairobi's gleaming Westgate mall.
The building's blueprints were studied, down to the ventilation ducts. The attack was rehearsed and the team dispatched, slipping undetected through Kenya's porous borders, often patrolled by underpaid — and deeply corrupt — border guards.
A day or two before the attack, powerful belt-fed machine guns were secretly stashed in a shop in the mall with the help of a colluding employee, officials say. At least one militant had even packed a change of clothes so he could slip out with fleeing civilians after the killings were done. That is the picture emerging from American security officials of the massacre at the Westgate mall, which killed scores of people over the weekend.
After a four-day standoff, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya claimed on Tuesday to have finally "ashamed and defeated our attackers."
American officials said that they had not determined the identities of the attackers and were awaiting DNA tests and footage from the mall's security cameras, but that they did know the massacre had been meticulously planned to draw "maximum exposure." "They had people in there, they had stuff inside," said an American security official. "This was all ready to go when the shooters walked in."
The building's blueprints were studied, down to the ventilation ducts. The attack was rehearsed and the team dispatched, slipping undetected through Kenya's porous borders, often patrolled by underpaid — and deeply corrupt — border guards.
A day or two before the attack, powerful belt-fed machine guns were secretly stashed in a shop in the mall with the help of a colluding employee, officials say. At least one militant had even packed a change of clothes so he could slip out with fleeing civilians after the killings were done. That is the picture emerging from American security officials of the massacre at the Westgate mall, which killed scores of people over the weekend.
After a four-day standoff, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya claimed on Tuesday to have finally "ashamed and defeated our attackers."
American officials said that they had not determined the identities of the attackers and were awaiting DNA tests and footage from the mall's security cameras, but that they did know the massacre had been meticulously planned to draw "maximum exposure." "They had people in there, they had stuff inside," said an American security official. "This was all ready to go when the shooters walked in."
Hakuna maoni:
Chapisha Maoni