Avoid Muslim Kenya
Al-Shabab says it singled out non-Muslims in Kenya mall attack
JOHANNESBURG
CBS News
9-25-2013
Al-Shabab, the armed Islamic extremist group that attacked a shopping
mall in Kenya, says foreigners were a "legitimate target" and confirmed
that gunmen separated Muslims from others and let the Muslims go.
In
an email exchange Wednesday with The Associated Press, al-Shabab said
the jihadis "carried out a meticulous vetting process" so the Muslims
would not be harmed.
At least 18 foreigners were killed, including six Britons, citizens
from France, Canada, Trinidad, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India,
Ghana, South Africa and China, when the militants entered the Westgate
Mall on Saturday, slaughtering men, women and children with assault
rifles and grenades. Witnesses said the gunmen also rounded up people,
asked questions about Islam that a Muslim would know, and told the
Muslims to leave.
The current death toll is 67.
CBS News special correspondent John Miller, a former assistant director at the FBI, said this week on "CBS This Morning" that the unfolding attack sheds new light on the relatively young al Qaeda-linked terrorist group's evolving mission.
Al-Shabab, which means "youth" in Arabic, was established in 2006 as a militant wing of the Islamic fundamentalist forces that controlled parts of Somalia at the time. Its stated mission was to bring Islamic sharia law to Somalia and topple the government.
By 2008, the U.S. had designated it a foreign terrorist group. In 2012, the organization formally allied itself with al Qaeda, issuing a joint announcement by the head of al-Shabab and Ayman al-Zawahri, then al Qaeda's deputy leader. Al-Shabab has provided the larger network significant cash from its lucrative kidnapping and piracy operations in Somalia in return for weapons.
An unknown number of young Somali-American men, predominantly from areas in the U.S. like Minnesota and Oregon where there are large Somali populations, have been drawn in by the group's propaganda and traveled to eastern Africa to join its ranks.
U.S. authorities have not been able to confirm whether any Americans were involved in the attack. An al-Shabab spokesman denied such reports Monday.
CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reported that there was a sense of relief in Nairobi Wednesday morning that the ordeal was over, but the search continued for bodies inside the mall, and one of the few things that was clear was that none of the remaining hostages made it out alive.
During the siege, Kenyan authorities reportedly tried to negotiate, but al-Shabab militants didn't even respond. There are reports that as a helicopter hovered overhead, gunmen started executing hostages and tossing their bodies off the roof.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya "stared down evil and triumphed."
"We have ashamed and defeated our attackers," he said Tuesday. "That part of our task has been completed by our multi-agency security teams."
He said three floors of the mall collapsed and several bodies were buried beneath the rubble, including those of terrorists and hostages.
Al-Shabab, which relayed its own version of the events unfolding in the mall in almost real time via a Twitter account, claimed Wednesday that the Kenyan forces had "disseminated chemical gases to end the siege." They did not specify what "gases," and Kenyan authorities denied that any chemical agents had been used.
The terror group also claimed that 137 people were killed in the siege, but that number could not be independently confirmed, and the Kenyan government had yet to issue a final death toll. According to officials, the death toll stood at 61, as it was stated on Tuesday.
The
sheer amount of firepower used over the course of the four-day siege
has led Kenyan investigators to chase reports that some of the
attackers had rented a shop in the mall three months prior to the
attack, enabling them to sneak in and stock up on weapons and
ammunition.
Kenyans killed in riot over Islamic cleric's arrest
January 16, 2010
While President Barack Obama took charge of the U.S. response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, he appears oblivious to the violence and death occurring in his ancestral home and current residence of his family.
According to an intelligence source, at least seven Kenyans were killed and more than 30 injured on Friday afternoon [Kenya time] when police attempted to disband a protest march by Kenyan Muslims against the arrest and deportation of a radical Islamic cleric.
The protest march in support of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Faisal turned violent when the demonstrators bombarded police officers with rocks. The officer responded by firing their weapons into the air and tossing tear gas canisters at the protestors.
Several bystanders and police officers were seriously injured in the protest-turned-riot with some of the victims being repeatedly stabbed by the protestors.
Shops located in the vicinity of the cleric's mosque were looted by protestors who also vandalized parked vehicles by smashing windshields with rocks.
In the midst of the violence, angry members of the public joined in the melee and helped police to confront the advancing Muslim youths.
Farouk Machanje, co-chair of the Muslim Human Rights Forum which organized the demonstration claimed those mortally wounded were all killed by bullet wounds.
The civil unrest began when hundreds of Muslims attending Friday prayers at the Nairobi Mosque defied police orders and went ahead with the planned march. .
The Muslims claimed they notified the government of their intention to stage demonstrations in major towns on Friday to press for the release of the cleric -- a native of Jamaica -- whom Kenyan police arrested after Nigerian authorities refused to allow him to enter their country.
Kenyan government officials stated they moved to arrest Al-Faisal because of his propensity for making radical statements and his connections with convicted terrorists. The stated his radicalism made him a threat to Kenya's security.
Some of the protesters were chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and others displayed what was thought to be the flag of Somali rebel group al Shabaab.
The Jamaican preacher was deported from Nairobi on Thursday following orders by the Kenyan Immigration Minister. Al-Faisal, born Trevor William Forrest, was convicted in Britain on terrorism-related charges in 2003 and deported upon release in 2007.
Upon his arrival on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, the Islamic Council of Jamaica banned him from preaching in its mosques due to his radicalism.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for The Examiner (examiner.com) and New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.