Massacre mall ablaze after Islamic terrorists 'blew themselves up': Fierce gunfire heard inside Kenyan shopping centre where militants were holding dozens of hostages

Judges at the International Criminal Court adjourned the trial of Kenyan Vice President William Ruto today for a week to allow him to return home to deal with the hostage crisis.
Ruto and Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to their role in coordinating a wave of violence that swept Kenya in the aftermath of the country's contested 2007 elections.
The court's unusually swift decision was taken during an emergency session after prosecutors said they had no objection to a short delay in proceedings, and a representative for the witnesses broke down in tears in the courtroom, saying Ruto should be allowed to attend to the urgent matter

Kenyan special forces were today locked in a fight to the death with Islamic terrorists who have been barricaded inside a Nairobi mall with up to 40 hostages since Saturday.
Witnesses described hearing four large explosions at the Westgate Shopping Centre followed by the sight of thick plumes of smoke and the sounds of fierce gunfire after the military tried to break the three day siege by gaining access from the roof.
It is feared that some of the gunmen, who are from Al Qaeda affiliated group Al Shabaab, may have blown themselves up, though a Kenyan government minister said that militants had set fire to some mattresses in a supermarket as a decoy.

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said that three of the terrorists have now been killed and that most hostages were now free.
All of the militants were men, he added, although some were dressed as women. 'We think the operation will come to an end soon', he said. 'We are in control of all the floors, the terrorists are running and hiding in some stores... there is no room for escape'.
The Red Cross has put the death toll at 62 - including four Britons - and say 63 are still missing. At least 175 were injured, including children.








There are fears the death toll will rise as security forces search the upmarket shopping complex.
Briton Ross Langdon, 33, has been confirmed as one of the dead. The award-winning architect, who had dual nationality with Australia, died alongside his heavily pregnant Dutch partner Elif Yavuz.







She was a a Harvard-educated malaria specialist who worked for the Clinton Health Access Initiative and was just two weeks away from giving birth to her first child.
The identities of the rest of the dead Britons have not been released. But late last night a British man told The Daily Telegraph that he had lost his wife and daughter and had identified their bodies from photographs shown to him by police.
Peruvian national Dr Juan Jesus Ortiz-Iruri, 63, who was due to start work at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine next month, was confirmed among the dead today. 
The Kenyan interior ministry said 'almost all' the hostages have been evacuated from the mall hours after it was rocked by a series of blasts.
In a Twitter message it added 'some individuals' have been arrested at Nairobi airport.
In a series of updates, it said 16 Kenyan soldiers had been injured, adding that the focus of the operation is now clearing the building.
Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said security forces now have control over all four storeys of the shopping mall and are confident there is no escape route for the surviving terrorists.
He said: 'We are doing anything reasonably possible, cautiously though, to bring this process to an end.
'The terrorists could be running and hiding in some stores, but all floors now are under our control.'

As Kenyan soldiers and more armoured personnel carriers descended on the mall, a spokesman for terror group Al Shabaab Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement posted on an Islamist website that those held inside will 'bear the brunt of any force' used by soldiers against the militants.
The statement read: 'We authorise the mujahedeen inside the building to take actions against the prisoners as much as they are pressed.
'We are telling Christians advancing onto the mujahedeen to have mercy for their prisoners who will bear the brunt of any force directed against the mujahedeen.'
There were conflicting reports about the identity of the attackers. Al Shabaab claimed on Twitter last night that the group was being led by Samantha Lewthwaite, who was married to Jermaine Lindsay, one of the 7/7 suicide bombers.
Known as the White Widow, she is wanted by Kenyan police over links to a suspected terrorist cell planning bomb attacks.
A link between Lewthwaite and the Westgate attack was made after soldiers claimed they had seen a white woman in a veil shouting orders to gunman in Arabic.
Meanwhile, a Twitter account claiming to represent Al Shabaab yesterday claimed that terrorists from seven nations are involved in the attack, including the U.S., Britain and Canada.
The HSM Press Office account, which has been suspended twice, claimed the group were Ahmed Nasir Shirdoon, 24, from London, UK; Gen Mustafe Noorduiin, 27, from Kansas City, U.S., Abdifatah Osman Keenadiid, 24, from Minneapolis, U.S., and Ahmed Mohamad Isse, 22, from Saint Paul, U.S; Ismael Guled, 23, from Finland; Abdirizak Mouled, 24, from Ontario, Canada; and Zaki Jama Caraale, 20, and Sayid Nuh, 25, both from Somalia.
A top Kenyan military official said he believes the attackers are 'a multinational collection from all over the world.'

General Julius Karangi said fighters from an array of nations participated in the attack claimed by Al Shabaab, a Somali group allies with al-Qaida.
We have an idea who they are, their nationality and even the number.  We are fighting global terrorism here and we have sufficient intel (intelligence) to suggest that.'
As the stand-off entered its third day, sustained bursts of rapid gunfire erupted at dawn and lasted 15 minutes, and soldiers posted around the complex ducked for cover.
This was followed by three big explosions, AFP correspondents at the scene said.
A Kenyan special forces officer said troops had moved in to end the siege with force.
'I saw them only once, I could not see them much," he said. 'It was hide-and-seek, hide-and-seek, hide-and-seek. In the end we had to use full force, we had to finish with these guys.'
Al Shabaab have not said how many people were being held by the dozen-or-so attackers, who marched into the Israeli-owned four-storey complex at midday Saturday, spraying shoppers with machine gunfire and tossing grenades.
One security officer said within half-an-hour of the attack the mall had been turned into 'an abattoir' as gunmen wearing Islamic scarves but Western clothes went on the rampage.
Police chief David Kimaiyo said today that some hostages have been freed. However, a group claiming to represent the Al Shabaab terrorists said they are still fighting inside the building. 
In a message on Twitter Mr Kimaiyo wrote: 'Thumbs up to our multi-agency team, we have just managed to rescue some hostages. We're increasingly gaining advantage of the attackers.

'WE ONLY WANT TO KILL KENYANS AND AMERICANS': EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE OF FRENCH FAMILY

A French woman said she was freed by the Islamic terrorists because they told her they only wanted to kill Kenyans and Americans.
The woman, who only gave her name as Pauline, said she escaped with her two young children, who were given Mars bars by the gunmen.
Pauline said she was asked for forgiveness by the terrorists who told her 'we are not monsters'.
The mother of two, who was in the supermarket when the attack began, said once she agreed Muslims were not 'bad people' they gave her children, Emily, 6, and Eliot, 4, chocolate.
She told The Independent: 'He said we only only want to kill Kenyans and Americans. He then told me I had to change my religion to Islam and said "do you forgive us? do you forgive us?'
She said she was able to escape with another two children, including a wounded 12-year-old boy whose mother had been murdered.

'I saw them only once, I could not see them much,' he said. 'It was hide-and-seek, hide-and-seek, hide-and-seek. In the end we had to use full force, we had to finish with these guys.'
The HSM Press Office account, which has been suspended twice and claims to have contact with the terrorists inside, wrote today: 'They’ve obtained large amounts of ammunition and are, by the blessings of Allah alone, still firm and still dominating the show #Westgate.'
The attacks have a chilling similarity to those in Mumbai in 2008 where terrorist besieged hotels, community centres and streets in 12 co-ordinated attacks, leaving more than 170 dead.
Following chairing a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee in Whitehall, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK had offered assistance to Kenya.
He said: 'Cobra met this morning and had an updated assessment of the situation. I can confirm that there is a fourth British national confirmed dead and the next of kin have been informed.
'We’re in close touch with the Kenyan authorities and we stand ready to provide them with any additional assistance they require.'
A British businessman said four members of his family were killed in the atrocity.
Samir Bharma, from Spinney Hills, Leicester, was last night making arrangements to fly to the Kenyan capital and said his relatives were killed while taking part in a recording of a television programme called Masterchef Junior.
He said: 'They were young people who were taking part in a cookery contest that was taking place in the centre. Unfortunately they have all passed away.
'An aunt - my dad's cousin - she's critical in hospital. I've spoken to my father who is there, but contact is difficult.'
Another Leicester man said his parents and brother and sister were in the shopping mall when the terrorists struck.
The man, in his 20s, wishes to remain anonymous after his mother warned him that terrorists had hacked into Facebook accounts of Nairobi residents and left the chilling warning 'we are watching you'.
He said: '[My mother] was just passing by in the upper mall. The whole thing was taking place on the ground floor and she just saw gunmen wandering around everywhere and shooting people. She saw her best friend being shot straight in the head.
'My sister just froze to the spot. My brother dragged my sister out into the parking lot. At that point the parking lot was secure

Survivors of the siege told today how terrorists, their faces hidden with Islamic scarves, stormed the shopping mall and started tossing grenades and spraying shoppers with AK-47s.
The gunmen ordered all Muslims to leave before carrying out rudimentary tests to see if hostages could recite the Koran and name the mother of the Prophet Mohammed.

As soldiers began working their way through the shopping centre yesterday they discovered that piles of bodies had been pushed against doors to slow their progress.
Reports on where the terrorists are holed up differ, with some reports suggesting they have barricaded themselves and dozens of hostages in a toilet block on the ground floor. 
A French woman, known only as Pauline, said the terrorists told her they only wanted to kill Kenyans and Americans.
Al Shabaab has demanded that President Uhuru Kenyatta must pull out Kenyan troops from Somalia.
Troops have pushed the militants on to the defensive over the past two years as part of an African Union-backed peacekeeping mission. Kenyatta refused.
The president, who lost a nephew in Saturday's killing, vowed to hold firm in the 'war on terror' in Somalia and said, cautiously, that Kenyan forces could end the siege.
'I assure Kenyans that we have as good a chance to successfully neutralise the terrorists as we can hope for,' he said. 'We will punish the masterminds swiftly and painfully.'

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK