KENYA SAYS 2 OR 3 AMERICANS AND 1 BRIT ARE AMONGST TERRORISTS WHO SEIGED MALL IN DAY 4 OF STANDOFF

NAIROBI, KENYA

The Islamic terrorists who staged a deadly attack on a Kenya mall said Tuesday hostages are still alive and that the militants are “still holding their ground,” as Nairobi’s morgue braced for the arrival of many more bodies, an official said.
The Kenyan Red Cross confirmed at least 62 people were killed, but spokesman Abbas Gullet said it was still not known how many more may be dead inside the building.

“It is certainly known that there are more casualties,” he said.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said Monday “two or three Americans” and “one Brit” were among the savages who attacked the mall, killing non-Muslims, including women and children.

She said in an interview with PBS that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” in the US. The attacker from Britain was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Mohamed said.

It was unclear if Mohamed were referring to Britain’s notorious “White Widow” Samantha Lewthwaite, the jihadist widow of one of the suicide bombers who launched the attack on London’s transit system in 2005, murdering 52 and wounding 700.

US officials said they were looking into whether any Americans were involved.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that the department had “no definitive evidence of the nationalities or the identities” of the attackers.

Britain’s foreign office said it was aware of the foreign minister’s remarks, but would not confirm if a British woman was involved.

Ten suspects had been rounded up at the Nairobi airport Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, a government official told AP that the morgue was preparing for up to 60 bodies, though the official didn’t know an exact count.

Kenyan forces have been battling the militants for four days and police said in a tweet: “Troops now in mop up operations in the building.”

The police urged people to ignore “enemy… propaganda” and assured that the defense forces were continuing to “neutralize” the terrorist threat.

In a new Twitter feed established Tuesday after previous ones were cut off, the al Qaeda-linked rebel group al-Shabab said the attack that began Saturday was “far greater than how the Kenyans perceive it.”

“There are countless number of dead bodies still scattered inside the mall, and the mujahideen are still holding their ground,” the group claimed.

It added that the hostages are “still alive looking quite disconcerted but, nevertheless, alive.”

A city resident whose brother is taking part in the military operation inside the mall said there were many dead bodies in the mall.

A US Embassy vehicle arrived at the morgue on Tuesday. American officials have not confirmed the deaths of any US citizens in the mall attack, but it appeared possible the Americans who visited the morgue — likely security officials with an agency like the FBI — could have been seeking information about one of the bodies inside.

Al-Shabab, whose name means “The Youth” in Arabic, said the mall attack was in retribution for Kenyan forces’ 2011 push into neighboring Somalia. African Union forces pushed the al Qaeda-affiliated group out of Somalia’s capital in 2011.

“You could have avoided all this and lived your lives with relative safety,” the group Tweeted Tuesday. “Remove your forces from our country and peace will come.”