Kenya’s president has vowed to relentlessly pursue anyone involved in the Nairobi hotel complex attack, as new details of the 16-hour siege emerged and investigators tried to trace 50 people who are still missing.
Twenty-one people have so far been confirmed dead, including 11 Kenyans, a Briton and an American, as well as five attackers. The figure is expected to rise.
In a televised address on Wednesday, Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said: “We will seek out every person who was involved in the funding, planning and execution of this heinous act. We will pursue them relentlessly wherever they will be until they are held accountable.”
The assault on the complex, which includes the luxury dusitD2 hotel, restaurants, a spa and the offices of several international companies, was the most high-profile by terrorists in Kenya since 67 people were killed in the Westgate mall attack in Nairobi in 2013.
Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based militant Islamist organisation responsible for the attack five years ago, said it also carried out the assault on Tuesday.
The head of Kenya’s police service, Joseph Boinnet, said five gunmen took part in the assault, including a suicide bomber who died in the first few minutes when he detonated his device in the hotel’s foyer. Boinnet said security forces killed two of the gunmen on Tuesday night and that the two others died on Wednesday morning.
A heavily armed member of the British SAS who was reportedly on a training mission with Kenyan special forces was pictured helping to evacuate peopleduring the attack.
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