Questions linger after Kenya mall attack
Relatives of Johnny Mutinda
Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in
Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, September 24. Musango was one of the victims
of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still
combing the mall on the fourth day of the siege by al Qaeda-linked
terrorists.
HIDE CAPTION
Kenya mall attack
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- There are conflicting reports on a British man held in Kenya for questioning
- Complexity of attack raises questions about planning, possible collusion
- Official: The Westgate Mall attackers "were not interested in hostage-taking"
- Six security officers, at least five terrorists and at least 61 civilians dead, president says
That's the reality for
investigators and the people of Kenya on Wednesday, still coming to
grips with a vicious attack and armed standoff that ended a day earlier.
At least 61 civilians and
six Kenyan security officers died in the four-day attack and rescue
efforts, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday, but the death toll will
rise as recovery workers retrieve bodies buried in the rubble of the
partially collapsed mall.
Kenyan forces killed five
terrorists, and 11 others are in custody over possible links to the
attacks, Kenyatta said, declaring that his country had "ashamed and
defeated" the attackers.
But even though Kenyatta
declared the siege over, an immense amount of work remains to learn how
Al-Shabaab, a terror group thought to be badly bruised by recent losses
in its Somalian homeland, was able to pull off such a well-coordinated
and brazen attack.
Terrorists ignored negotiation efforts
Eyewitness describes Kenyan mall tragedy
Kenya mall hostage situation is over
Siege may hurt group that carried it out
How did they do it?
It started Saturday when
the attackers stormed into the upscale mall and began shooting. A senior
Kenyan government official said they took "very few" people captive;
the attackers were primarily out for blood.
"They were not interested in hostage-taking," the official said. "They only wanted to kill."
The attackers were
equipped well enough to kill dozens of civilians, then fend off Kenyan
security forces for four days -- not the sort of action that can be
pulled off on a whim.
That raises a number of
questions: How could such a significant plot, involving travel
arrangements, arms transfers and other details, have escaped the
attention of intelligence officials? Did the attackers have inside help,
either at the mall or within security forces?
So far, Kenyan and U.S. authorities aren't answering such questions, certainly not publicly.
U.S. wants access
U.S. security and law
enforcement personnel are pressing for access to the mall and the bodies
of the terrorists so they can begin to determine if Americans were
among the attackers, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge
of the situation.
"That is the
million-dollar question," the official said. "We do not have much
fidelity on this. We haven't had access to the scene."
But based on what the
United States knows so far, "this was meticulously planned," the
official said. "This is not something where the attackers walked into
the mall all of the sudden."
FBI experts from the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center are assisting Kenyans on a preliminary basis. They
have specific expertise in analyzing explosives and fingerprints. But
the United States wants autopsy and forensic data, including DNA
samples, to help determine if Americans were involved, the official
said. The United States also will scour any communications or intercepts
for clues, according to other officials.
American experts also will try to analyze any evidence of grenades and heavy belt-fed machine guns being used, the official said. He noted grenade attacks by Al-Shabaab are fairly common.
The U.S. belief so far is that Al-Shabaab hard-line leader Ahmed Abdi Godane ordered the attack, the official said.
"Nothing like this would
have gotten off the ground without him. It's safe to assume this is
something he would have blessed," the official said.
Who were the attackers?
Cell phone video shows Kenya mall attack
Shooting witness: We crawled under cars
Al Qaeda-linked group claims attacks
Kenyan authorities have said 10 to 15 attackers were believed to be involved.
One attacker was Dutch and another British, Kenya State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu told CNN on Wednesday.
Al-Shabaab previously
had said Americans were involved in the attack, a claim Kenyatta also
noted Tuesday but said has not been verified. Esipisu said Wednesday
that Kenyan authorities believe attackers of "a few other nationalities"
were involved.
Kenyan Interior Minister
Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters Wednesday that authorities cannot
confirm the nationalities of the terrorists until forensic testing is
complete. He said the United States, Israel, Britain, Germany and Canada
are helping in the mall forensic investigation.
Reports that a white
woman was among the terrorists who stormed the mall have prompted a slew
of media speculation about Samantha Lewthwaite, a British woman whose
husband was one of the suicide bombers in the 2005 London terror
attacks. Known as the "White Widow," Lewthwaite has been wanted by
international counterterrorism officials since authorities found
bomb-making materials in her Mombasa, Kenya, apartment in 2011. She
vanished shortly before a raid.
A senior Kenyan official
said Tuesday a woman was involved in the attack. Esipisu said Wednesday
that authorities can't say much about who the woman was or what she was
doing.
"What we've been told by
multiple witnesses is that they saw a woman. We have also been told
that if it is the same woman that they say they saw, that she would have
been killed very early on in the attack," Esipisu said. "We don't know
for sure that we had a woman. And secondly, because of the bodies
trapped under the rubble, we don't know if she is who everyone says she
might be."
Where are they?
Some of them are dead, inside the rubble of the partially collapsed mall, Kenyatta said.
But while he said five
terrorists had been killed by Kenyan forces and 11 people were in
custody, it was not clear if all the attackers had been accounted for,
or if some may have been able to slip out in the chaos.
A senior Kenyan official
said forces were able to drive two attackers trying to escape by car
back inside the mall, but it's unclear if any others might have been
able to elude authorities early in the crisis. Others could have escaped
by posing as civilians, perhaps after ditching weapons and changing
clothes.
On Wednesday, a
high-level source who asked for anonymity told CNN that Kenyan
counterterrorism police had arrested a British national of Somali
descent who had injuries on his face and was acting suspiciously as he
tried to board a Turkish Airlines flight. It's not clear if Kenyan
authorities suspect the man of being inside the mall during the attack,
but authorities found they had no record of the man's entry into the
country, the source said.
There is conflicting information on the man.
The UK Foreign and
Commonwealth Office told CNN the detained man is not connected to the
terrorist attack. The office did not say how it knew that man was not
involved and declined to elaborate.
Kenyatta, whose country
boasts deep counterterrorism ties to the United States, vowed to track
down and punish the attack's perpetrators.
"These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons wherever they are," the Kenyan leader said Tuesday.
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