Al Qaeda affiliated Somali militant group Al Shabab has claimed responsibility on the bloody attack on a mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which has claimed up to 30 lives as of now. On Saturday, during lunch hours, masked gunmen attacked a popular mall in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and started shooting indiscriminately and gathering hostages. Witnesses reported that non-Muslims were targeted in the attack.
A tweet from Al Shabab claimed, “The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar inside their own turf.”
Westgate Mall is the upscale mall under terrorist attack and is frequented by foreigners, tourists, and upper middle class of Nairobi.
Nairobi Police Chief Benson Kibue told the media, “We are treating this as a terrorist attack.”
Another tweet from Al Shabab posted, “The attack at #WestGate Mall just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders.”
The Kenyan Red Cross Society has placed the death toll at 30 with 60 injured.
The Kenyan army and Special Forces have been called in to lend support to the police at Westgate mall. The Kenyan police has tightened security at other malls, following the massacre at Westgate.
Since Kenya participated in an effort to oust Al Shabab from the Somali Capital led by a U.S.-backed force, the country has been threatened by Somali terrorists.
Kenyan troops were instrumental in pushing back Al Shabab and forcing them out of the city of Kismayo which was a principal source of revenue for the terrorists.
Al Shabab tweeted, “By land , air and sea, Kenyan forces invaded our Muslim country, killing hundreds of Muslims in the process and displacing thousands more.”
It said, “The Kenyan government, however, turned a deaf ear to our repeated warnings … For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it’s time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land.”