Nairobi attack: UK woman and Americans 'among militants
Kenya Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told US PBS network that one of the militants was a British woman
A
British woman is thought to be among militants who killed at least 65
people at a Kenyan shopping centre, the country's foreign minister has
said.
Amina Mohamed said the woman had "done this many times before" and "two or three" Americans were also attackers.
Earlier, Kenya's interior minister said all of the militants were men, although some may have been dressed as women.
Six British nationals are confirmed dead in the attack on the Westgate centre in Nairobi.
The Foreign Office (FCO) said the next of kin of the six had been informed and were being offered consular support.
The presence of westerners amid the Somali jihad is by no
means as extensive as it has been in Pakistan or Afghanistan - but the
path is similar: radicalisation begins at home.
The recruits - on evidence before British and Kenyan courts -
appear to work in tight-knit units of fellow travellers. Their presence
can be most obviously seen in the English-language jihadist social
media pumped out of the region.
One of the first British recruits six years ago is suspected of having blown himself up in a suicide attack.
Another rose through the ranks, until he was ultimately killed in a drone strike.
Those who return often find themselves subject to surveillance and monitoring.
The government has also used powers to deprive some suspects of British nationality to stop them from ever coming back.
It also said it was aware of the
comments by Kenya's foreign minister, but officials have refused to
speculate on the identity of any of the perpetrators.
At a press conference in Pakistan, Home Secretary Theresa
May, asked about Ms Mohamed's remarks said: "I'm aware that there have
been reports of a British woman being involved, but until we have seen
the investigations completed it is not possible to give further details
to confirm or deny that issue."
Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by al-Shabab -
an Islamist group based in neighbouring Somalia, which is part of the
al-Qaeda network.
'Animals'
Ms Mohamed's comments have fuelled speculation about the
possible involvement in the attack of British terror suspect Samantha
Lewthwaite - the widow of 7 July suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay.
She is known to be in East Africa and is wanted by Kenyan
police over alleged links to a terrorist cell that planned to bomb the
country's coast.
Government officials, though, have advised caution when it
comes to Ms Lewthwaite's involvement in the attack, saying "it could be
her. It could be another western woman, or neither of the above".
Ms Mohamed told the PBS NewsHour programme on Monday: "From
the information that we have, two or three Americans [were involved] and
I think, so far, I have heard of one Brit... a woman ... and I think
she has done this many times before."
The Americans are believed to
have been aged about 18 or 19, of Somali or Arab origin and lived in
"Minnesota and one other place", she said.
On Tuesday, four days after the attack began, a senior Kenyan
police source told the BBC that the police operation at the shopping
centre in Nairobi was "over".
It followed a stand-off between the police and military and up to 15 attackers.
The official death toll stands at 65, with more than 170 injured.
A UK man, who lost his young daughter, told the Daily Telegraph she was killed by "animals" who were using "religion as an excuse".
'Bad man'
Louis Bawa, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, said he had
spoken to his daughter Jennah, eight, and Kenyan-born wife Zahira on
Friday but "didn't get a chance to catch up with them" again.
He said they had gone on a regular Saturday shopping trip to the Westgate centre, but added: "This time they didn't come home."
The wife of Louis Bawa (left) and his eight-year-old daughter Jennah (right) were killed in the attack
Architect Ross Langdon, who had British-Australian citizenship,
has also been named as one of the UK victims although the Foreign
Office is still not confirming identities.
Mr Langdon's company, Regional Associates, issued a tribute to him and said he had died alongside his pregnant partner, Elif Yavuz, a Dutch citizen.
The BBC spoke to Sue Mathias, whose daughter Lynsey Khatau,
her partner and four-year-old son managed to escape from the shopping
centre after hiding in an office for a number of hours.
"Every time I watch it I'm crying, I'm like God that could
have been my little girl, that could have been my grandson, it could
have been her partner.
"I'm just glad she was on the bottom floor of the mall where
there was an exit to go to the car park, because if she was on any of
the other floors she wouldn't have made it."
A Leicester man brought up in Kenya told BBC Radio Leicester that four of his family members were killed in the attack.
Sue Mathias, mother of survivor Lynsey: "I kept thinking, it could have been her, it could have been the baby"
He said that he had spoken to his brother in Nairobi but
"contact is difficult because they're in a balance between trying to
find out if other people are still inside because we don't know where
they are. It's just a really bad time."
According to the Sun newspaper, a four-year-old British boy was among the survivors of the atrocity.
His mother was reportedly shot in the leg, but was able to
escape with her son and his six-year-old sister after the boy told one
of the gunmen: "You're a very bad man."
And the Daily Mail reported
that an off-duty British Special Air Services (SAS) soldier who was in
the shopping centre at the time of the attack saved at least 100 lives.
The newspaper reported that the unnamed man went in and out of the Westgate centre a dozen times to rescue people.
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