That's the reality for
investigators and the people of Kenya on Wednesday, still coming to
grips with a vicious attack and armed standoff that ended a day earlier.
At least 61 civilians and
six Kenyan security officers died in the attack and rescue efforts,
President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday, but the death toll will rise as
recovery workers retrieve bodies buried in the rubble of the partially
collapsed mall.
Kenyan forces killed five
of the terrorists, and 11 other people are in custody for possible
links to the attacks, Kenyatta said, declaring that his country had
"ashamed and defeated" the attackers.
But even though Kenyatta
declared the siege over, an immense amount of work remains to learn how
Al-Shabaab, a terror group thought to be badly bruised by recent losses
of territory in its Somalian homeland, was able to pull off such a
well-coordinated and brazen attack.
How did they do it?
It started on Saturday
when the attackers stormed into the upscale mall and began shooting. A
senior Kenyan government official said they took "very few" people
captive; the attackers were primarily out for blood.
"They were not interested in hostage-taking," the official said. "They only wanted to kill."
The attackers were
well-enough equipped to kill dozens of civilians, then fend off Kenyan
security forces for four days -- not the sort of action that can be
pulled off on a whim.
That raises a number of
questions: How could such a significant plot, involving travel
arrangements, arms transfers and other details, have escaped the
attention of intelligence officials? Did the attackers have inside help,
either at the mall or within security forces?
So far, Kenyan and U.S.
authorities aren't answering such questions, certainly not publicly. But
The New York Times, citing unnamed American security officials, said
Wednesday that it appeared the attack had been well-planned and that the
attackers must have had access to storage at the mall to stash their
weapons.
One official quoted by
the newspaper said militants had access to a heavy belt-fed machine gun
that couldn't have been openly carried into the mall without attracting
notice.
Who were the attackers?
Kenyan authorities have said 10 to 15 attackers were believed to be involved.
One of the attackers was Dutch, another British, Kenya State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu told CNN on Wednesday.
Al-Shabaab had
previously claimed that Americans were involved in the attack, a claim
Kenyatta noted Tuesday but said has yet to be verified. Esipisu said
Wednesday that Kenyan authorities believe attackers of "a few other
nationalities" were involved.
Kenyan Interior Minister
Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters Wednesday that authorities cannot
confirm the nationalities of the terrorists until forensic testing is
complete. He said the United States, Israel, Britain, Germany, and
Canada are helping in the mall forensic investigation.
Citing unnamed American
officials, The Times reported that American officials believed
Al-Shabaab may have recruited the attackers from the United States and
other Western countries for their skill in English, which is widely
spoken in Kenya.
One of the more
tantalizing rumors suggests the involvement of Samantha Lewthwaite, a
British woman whose husband killed himself in a 2005 London suicide
bombing. Known as the "White Widow," Lewthwaite has been wanted by
international counter-terrorism officials since authorities found
bomb-making materials in her Mombasa, Kenya, apartment in 2011. She
vanished shortly before a raid.
A senior Kenyan official
said Tuesday that a woman was involved in the attack. Esipisu said
Wednesday that authorities can't say much about who the woman was or
what she was doing.
"What we've been told by
multiple witnesses is that they saw a woman. We have also been told
that if it is the same woman that they say they saw, that she would have
been killed very early on in the attack," Esipisu said." We don't know
for sure that we had a woman. And secondly, because of the bodies
trapped under the rubble, we don't know if she is who everyone says she
might be."
Where are they?
Some of them are dead, inside the rubble of the partially collapsed mall, Kenyatta said.
But while he said five
of the terrorists had been killed by Kenyan forces and 11 people were in
custody, it was not clear if all of the attackers had been accounted
for, or if some may have been able to slip out in the chaos.
While a senior Kenyan
official said forces were able to drive two attackers trying to escape
by car back inside the mall, it's unclear if any others might have been
able to successfully elude authorities early in the crisis. Others could
have escaped by posing as civilians, perhaps after ditching their
weapons and changing clothes.
On Wednesday, a
high-level source who asked for anonymity told CNN that Kenyan
counterterrorism police had arrested a British national of Somalia
descent who had injuries on his face and was acting suspiciously as he
tried to board a Turkish Airlines flight. It's not clear if Kenyan
authorities suspect the man of being inside the mall during the attack,
but authorities found they had no record of the man's entry into the
country, the source said.
Kenyatta, whose country
boasts deep counterterrorism ties to the United States, vowed to track
down and punish the attack's perpetrators.
"These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons wherever they are," he said Tuesday.
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