Jan. 15 (UPI) -- An upscale hotel in Kenya was attacked with gunfire and explosions Tuesday in what authorities are calling a terrorist attack.

The attack targeted the DusitD2 hotel and office park in Nairobi's Westlands neighborhood. The Somali militant group al-Shabab told al-Jazeera it was behind the attack.

The casualty count was not initially reported.

One man at the hotel used Twitter to communicate with relatives.

"I am ... hiding in a bathroom and we are under attack," he wrote. "There was a massive bombs blast then gunshots. HELP SOS."

A Kenya Air Force helicopter responded to the attack, the Nation reported.

Smoke was seen from something burning outside the hotel. Police warned people to stay away from the area and nearby buildings were evacuated.

Al-Shabab has attacked Kenya before, including a strike at the Westgate Mall in 2013 that killed 71 people. </s> The Somalia-based al-Qaeda linked terror group al-Shabaab attacked the luxury hotel Dusit-D2 in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, killing at least 15.

Al-Shabaab is considered the deadliest terrorist organization in Africa and has conducted several spectacular terrorist attacks in Somalia and Kenya.

The attack on Tuesday came three years to the day after al-Shabaab extremists attacked a Kenyan military base in neighboring Somalia, killing scores of people.

Tuesday’s attack comes on the third anniversary, to the day, of an al-Shabaab ambush on the El-Adde camp in Somalia, killed 170 Kenyan soldiers.

In April 2015, al-Shabaab killed 147 students at the Garissa University College in Kenya. ( “3-Apr-15 World View — Al-Shabaab kills 147 mostly Christian students in Kenya school”)

Al-Shabaab also conducted the horrific three-day terror attack on Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall, killing 67 people. ( “23-Sep-13 World View — Minnesota link to Kenya shopping mall attack raises U.S. fears”)

The reason that the Westgate Mall attack lasted for three days is that the Nairobi police were ill-prepared to respond to it, and received a great deal of criticism as a result. The Dusit hotel is less than 2 km away from the Westgate mall. Tuesday’s attack on the Dusit hotel was handled more efficiently by Nairobi’s police, though it still lasted several hours.

CCTV footage has emerged showing that there were four assailants who carried out the attack. The hotel is in a supposedly very secure part of Nairobi, but the attackers gained access to the hotel by hurling grenades at the security officers manning the gate.

The Dusit hotel complex consists of a number of buildings and many were attacked. Police went from building to building and rescued hundreds of people who were trapped in hotel rooms or offices.

One of the CCTV images captured what appears to be a U.S. Navy SEAL rescuing civilians and then returning to the scene of the fighting. The Pentagon has U.S. special forces in a number of countries in Africa, describing their mission as “advising and assisting.” In Kenya, the U.S. has a small presence at Camp Simba, where they reportedly train naval special forces.

Al-Shabaab has vowed retribution against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia since 2011. The al-Qaeda-linked group has killed hundreds of people in Kenya, targeted more than any other of the six countries providing troops to an African Union force in Somalia. Kenyans and AP and The Star (Kenya) and Business Insider

Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based terror group that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. In 2014, they debated changing allegiance to ISIS but rejected the change, resulting in the formation of a small splinter group. The group conducts massive terror attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. It has an estimated 3,000-6,000 members, including members that it has successfully recruited from the Somali diaspora in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the case of the Westgate Mall attack, three terrorists were from the United States, including two from the Somali community in the twin cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) region of Minnesota.

Al-Shabaab’s predecessors have been around in Somalia since the 1980s. During the 2000s, they were responsible for numerous pirate attacks on vessels off the coast of eastern Africa. Since 2007, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), consisting of troops from Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone, have targeted the group. U.S. drone strikes and airstrikes have killed several of the group’s leaders.

Al-Shabaab’s targets are usually governmental, with the stated goal of ejecting Western influence and converting Somalia into an Islamic Sharia state.

The U.N. Security Council had ordered the withdrawal of AMISOM troops starting in October of last year, after which Somalia security forces were expected to begin taking over. However, the withdrawal was postponed until February of this year. However, a recent spate of successful attacks, despite the presence of AMISOM troops, has given credence to the view that Somalia security forces are too weak to take over, and the departure of AMISOM would result in the complete al-Shabaab takeover of Somalia. Jamestown (12-Oct-2018) and Council of Foreign Affairs (11-Dec-2018) and International Crisis Group (21-Sep-2018)
• New Somalia terror bombings again raise question of US military strategy in Africa (29-Oct-2017)
• US sends dozens of troops to Somalia, first time since Black Hawk Down (15-Apr-2017)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kenya, Nairobi, Somalia, al-Shabaab, Dusit-D2 hotel, Westgate Mall, El-Adde camp, Garissa University College, Westgate Mall, Minneapolis, African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone

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 Receive daily World View columns by e-mail </s> Police: 1 injured in explosion near cinema in Kenya capital

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — An explosive device went off outside a cinema in a busy part of the capital, injuring one person late Saturday, a police officer said.

The person wounded in the explosion in Nairobi was a handcart pusher and had been given a small piece of luggage by an unknown person who fled, the official said.

Detectives believe inside the luggage was an improvised explosive device that went off, he said.

The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

The Kenya Red Cross said it sent emergency teams to the scene, which was sealed off by law enforcement officers.

The explosion happened two days after the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi issued a security alert reminding the public about "the continued need for sustained vigilance in public spaces such as shopping malls, hotels, and places of worship."

Kenya is recovering from a Jan. 15 attack in which gunmen stormed a hotel complex and killed 21 people.

The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which is based in neighboring Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack on the DusitD2 hotel and shopping complex.

Al-Shabab, which has ties with al-Qaida, has often targeted Kenya in retaliation over Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.

Al-Shabab also carried out the 2013 attack at Nairobi's nearby Westgate Mall that killed 67 people, and an assault on Kenya's Garissa University in 2015 that claimed 147 lives, mostly students. </s> Witnesses have reported seeing bodies after extremists launched an attack on a luxury hotel in Kenya’s capital city.

Al-Shabab — the Somalia-based Islamic extremist group that carried out the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that left 67 people dead — has claimed responsibility.

“It is terrible. What I have seen is terrible,” said a man who ran from the scene.

As night fell, gunfire continued more than two hours after the first shots were heard at the complex, which includes the DusitD2 hotel, along with bars, restaurants, banks and offices.

“We are aware that armed criminals are holing up in the hotel, and special forces are now currently flushing them out,” said Kenya’s national police chief, Joseph Boinnet, describing the assault as a suspected terror attack.

A Kenyan police officer said bodies were seen in restaurants downstairs and in offices upstairs, but “there was no time to count the dead”.

Another witness said he saw five bodies at the entrance. He said that other people were shouting for help and “when we rushed back to try to rescue them, gunshots started coming from upstairs, and we had to duck because they were targeting us and we could see two guys shooting”.

Kenyan hospitals appealed for blood donations even as the number of wounded remained unclear.

The violence appeared to fit the pattern of attacks al-Shabbab often carries out in Somalia’s capital, with an explosion followed by a group of gunmen storming the place.

Like the Westgate Mall attack, this one appeared aimed at wealthy Kenyans and foreigners living in the country. The hotel complex is in an affluent section of Nairobi that has large numbers of expatriates from the US, Europe and India.

The attack came a day after a magistrate ruled that three men must stand trial on charges they were involved in the Westgate Mall siege. A fourth suspect was freed for lack of evidence.

People rushed and some were carried, from the scene. Some ducked behind cars screaming while others took cover behind fountains and other features at the lush complex.

Ambulances, security forces and firefighters converged on the scene along with a bomb disposal unit, and vehicles were cordoned off for fear they contained explosives. Police said they blew up a car that had explosives inside. An unexploded grenade was also seen in a hallway at the complex.

Al-Shabab has vowed retribution against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia since 2011. The al-Qaida-linked group has killed hundreds of people in Kenya, which has been targeted more than any other of the six countries providing troops to an African Union force in Somalia. </s> Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Wednesday that gunmen who stormed a luxury hotel complex, killing 14 people, had been "eliminated" after an almost 20-hour operation in which hundreds of civilians were rescued.

The attack was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Somali group Al-Shabaab, which has targeted Kenya since it sent its army into Somalia in October 2011 to fight the jihadist group.

At least one suicide bomber blew himself up and others swapped gunfire with security forces as the assault on DusitD2, a complex which includes a 101-room hotel, spa, restaurant and offices, unfolded on Tuesday.

"There were five terrorists and all of them are no more," Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet told AFP. "It is a clearing exercise now going on there."

For many Kenyans, news of the attack revived traumatic memories of a 2013 Shabaab raid on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall that left 67 dead -- a siege played out over four days that led to sharp criticism of the authorities' response.

But this time, local media heaped praise on the security forces for their intervention, which Kenyatta said entailed the evacuation of some 700 civilians.

"I can confirm that... the security operation at Dusit complex is over and all the terrorists eliminated," Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation.

"As of this moment, we have confirmation that 14 innocent lives were lost to the... terrorists, with others injured."

George Kinoti, the director of criminal investigations, told AFP that "two principal suspects" had been arrested in connection with the attack.

He said one was arrested in the suburb of Eastleigh, and the other in Ruaka, northwest of Nairobi, where officers carried out a raid on a house where one of the attackers lived.

"One of the men was identified by locals, who called police and they have confirmed that he lived there with his wife," a police source said on condition of anonymity.

CCTV footage broadcast on local media showed four black-clad, heavily-armed men entering the complex on Tuesday afternoon.

At least one of them blew himself up at the start of the attack.

A police source said two attackers were shot dead Wednesday morning after a prolonged shootout.

"The two have red bandanas tied around their forehead and bullets strapped around their chest with several magazines each," the senior police officer said.

"Each had an AK47 which has been secured."

The attack began at about 3pm (1200 GMT) on Tuesday, with a loud blast followed by gunfire and rapid calls for help spreading on Twitter.

Boinnet earlier said the attack began with an explosion targeting three cars in the parking lot and a suicide bombing in the hotel foyer.

Police sources and a mortuary official had previously reported 15 dead.

Among the dead was an American citizen, a State Department official said.

The British foreign office confirmed the death of a British-South African dual national and said another British person was injured.

A mortuary official said there were also 11 Kenyan victims, one with no papers, as well as an unidentified torso of a male adult.

It was a tormented night for families of those trapped as they waited outside the hotel while sporadic gunfire rang out.

After dawn, explosions and shooting intensified until the complex was secured mid-morning.

In downtown Nairobi, dozens of people lined up at a memorial for the US Embassy destroyed during an Al-Qaeda attack in 1998 to give blood.

As the first explosion and gunfire rang out in the leafy Westlands suburb, hundreds of terrified office workers barricaded themselves in the complex while others fled.

Distraught family members arrived at a nearby mortuary on Wednesday, where they said they had not been permitted to view the bodies.

"My sister is not in any of the hospitals and the last time we spoke she was a bit calm but suddenly she started crying and shouting and I could hear gunshots and her phone remained on but she wasn't speaking," said a woman who gave her name as Njoki.

"We have no doubt her body is here. Let them allow us in", she said, weeping.

One survivor rescued from the building told a local television station the attackers were "very confident; they were people who knew what they were doing".

John Maingi said there had been "a flash of lights and a loud bang" at the Secret Garden restaurant where he works.

"When I peeped outside I saw a human leg which has been cut off. We hid in the room and then some police officers rescued us," he said.

An editorial in the Daily Nation newspaper said the attack was a stark reminder that Kenya's security challenges were far from over.

The last major attack in the country took place in 2015, when Shabaab killed 148 people at the university in Garissa, eastern Kenya.

Since then sporadic attacks have targeted security forces mostly in the remote northeastern parts of the country.

"Just when we thought that things were calm, the gangs unleashed mayhem. For Kenyans the chilling reality is that the attacks are not ceasing," read the editorial. </s> Fire and smoke rises from an explosion in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. An upscale hotel complex in Kenya's capital came under attack on Tuesday, with a blast and heavy gunfire. The al-Shabab extremist group based in neighboring Somalia claimed responsibility and said its members were still fighting inside. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

JOHANNESBURG - At least three people have reportedly been killed in an ongoing attack, claimed by militant group Al Shabaab, on the Dusit Hotel in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. An urgent appeal for blood has been made by Avenue Hospital in Parklands after a number of those injured were rushed to hospital. Other hospitals are expected to follow suit.

The incident involving several explosions and an exchange of gunfire began earlier in the afternoon in the Westland district of the capital which also houses a bank and a number of offices. Local television showed smoke rising from a compound in the district of the city.

Special forces have cordoned off the area with reports of people still trapped inside the hotel. </s> An explosive device went off outside a cinema in a busy part of Kenya’s capital and injured two people, police said. One of those injured in the explosion in Nairobi Saturday was a handcart pusher who received a small piece of luggage from an individual who later fled.

The other was a newspaper vendor, said Philip Ndolo, police commander in charge of Nairobi. A manhunt was underway for the unidentified person reported to have deposited the luggage in a cart, Ndolo said.

Detectives think the luggage contained an improvised explosive device that went off, a police officer at the scene told The Associated Press. The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters.

The Kenya Red Cross said it sent emergency teams to the scene, which was sealed off by law enforcement officers.

The explosion happened two days after the US Embassy in Nairobi issued a security alert reminding the public about “the continued need for sustained vigilance in public spaces such as shopping malls, hotels, and places of worship”.

Kenya is recovering from a January 15 attack in which gunmen stormed a hotel complex and killed 21 people. The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which is based in neighbouring Somalia, claimed responsibility for the attack on the DusitD2 hotel and shopping complex.

Al-Shabab, which has ties with al-Qaida, has often targeted Kenya in retaliation over Kenya’s military involvement in Somalia. It also carried out the 2013 attack at Nairobi’s nearby Westgate Mall that killed 67 people, and an assault on Kenya’s Garissa University in 2015 that claimed 147 lives, mostly students. </s> Somali Islamist group al Shabaab has claimed the attack at an upscale hotel and office complex in the Kenyan capital, adding it was still ongoing.

At least one person is dead and four injured, reports say, as an explosion and sustained gunfire was heard, sending workers fleeing for their lives.

It was not clear how many attackers took part, The Associated Press reported.

Gunfire continued several minutes after the first reports as ambulances, security forces and firefighters rushed to the scene.

The complex in Nairobi's Westlands neighbourhood includes a large hotel known as DusitD2, along with banks and offices.

Black smoke rose from the complex. A bomb disposal unit arrived, and vehicles were cordoned off for fear they contained explosives.

Police said they detonated a car that had explosives inside. An unexploded grenade was also seen in a hallway at the complex, AP said.

People were rushed, some carried, from the scene Some ducked behind cars, screaming. Others appeared to take cover behind fountains and other features in the lush outdoor complex.

Firefighters extinguished a blaze involving three cars by the entrance as armed security personnel headed in and other armed officers escorted shocked workers out, many with their hands up.

A woman shot in the leg was carried out and three men emerged covered in blood. Some office workers climbed out of windows. Many told Reuters that they had had to leave colleagues behind, still huddled under their desks.

"There's a grenade in the bathroom," an officer yelled as police rushed out from one building.

A picture of the grounds on Twitter showed what appeared to be a human leg lying on the ground.

"We heard a loud bang from something that was thrown inside. Then I saw shattered glass," Geoffrey Otieno, who works at a beauty salon in the complex, told Reuters. "We hid until we were rescued."

Kenya has often been targeted by al Shabaab, who killed dozens of people in a shopping centre in 2013 and nearly 150 students at a university in 2015.

"We are behind the attack in Nairobi. The operations is going on," said Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's military operations spokesman.

"I just started hearing gunshots, and then started seeing people running away raising their hands up and some were entering the bank to hide for their lives," a woman working in a bank in the complex said, adding she had heard two explosions.

"We are under attack," another person in an office told Reuters, then hung up. </s> Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says the deadly attack and siege on a hotel and office complex in the capital Nairobi has ended.

In a nationally televised address Wednesday morning, President Kenyatta said 14 civilians had been killed in the attack on the DusitD2 complex, while 700 civilians had been rescued by security forces.

Kenyatta said all the "terrorists" who took part in the attack on the DusitD2 complex had been "eliminated."

The U.S. State Department confirmed late Tuesday that one American was among the dead, but has not identified the victim. A British citizen was also reportedly killed in the attack.

The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab is claiming responsibility for Tuesday's attack, which began in mid-afternoon with an explosion outside a bank and a suicide bombing in the hotel lobby.

Four gunmen could be seen on surveillance video walking through the parking lot with at least one stopping to open fire.

Terrified office and hotel workers and guests ran for cover, streaming from the buildings, climbing out of windows, ducking behind police vehicles and anything they could find while gunfire echoed off the walls.

Police found a sad and grisly scene inside one of the restaurants -- wounded and dead diners at their tables, slumped over unfinished meals.

​Other witnesses say they found human limbs lying on the ground.

Witness Duran Farah told VOA he and some colleagues were entering the complex at the time of the attack.

"A loud explosion happened at the gate. Next there was shooting, an exchange of fire, a lot of fire, and we see people rushing and running around in every direction," he said. He and his friends escaped by running down an alleyway.

The DusitD2 hotel and shops are in an upscale Nairobi neighborhood popular with American, European, and Indian tourists, although exactly who was targeted and why is unclear.

The militant Islamic al-Shabab staged several previous attacks in Kenya, including the September 2013 assault on Nairobi's Westgate Mall that left 67 dead.

VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching, Somali service senior editor Harun Maruf, national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Nairobi bureau chief Daniel Schearf, and reporter Mohammed Yusuf in Nairobi all contributed to this report.
Multiple explosions and gunfire are reported after four armed men stormed the Dusit hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The Somalia-based militant group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility.