An Cosantóir June 2014 www.dfmagazine.ie
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by PAUL O'BRIEN
Terror Attack
O
n Saturday, 21st September 2013 one of the worst terrorist attack in recent years unfold-
ed when Al Qaeda-linked militants stormed a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. For the
next four days, Kenya would be plunged into darkness as gunfire and explosions echoed
throughout its capital. The Westgate Shopping Mall was a popular, three-storey, cosmopolitan
mall that was a well known place for locals and foreign nationals to shop and socialise; a
soft target for the insurgents.
The group, Al Shabaab, launched the attack as 'retribution' for the Kenyan government's deploy-
ment of troops in Somalia. The UN had issued warnings of possible attacks in Kenya because of
their involvement with Somali government forces acting against Al Shabaab in Somalia.
Weeks before the Westgate attack, Kenyan forces had arrested two insurgents who
were planning an attack, recovering weapons, explosives, and suicide vests filled
with ball bearings.
At noon on 21st September an estimated dozen Al Shabaab gunmen, armed
with automatic rifles and grenades, entered the Westgate Mall and began
summarily executing men, women and children.
The attack commenced with exploding grenades ripping through the
outdoor seating area of the Artcaffé shop. This was followed by bursts of
automatic fire as the assailants made their way inside the mall. Dressed
in combat fatigues and black turbans, and carrying AK47 assault rifles,
the gunmen casually walked through the mall shooting indiscrimi-
nately. The scene was one of panic and chaos as people fled in terror,
shocked at the series of events that they had become caught up in.
Many of those that managed to get out through a rear door of the
mall were cut and bleeding from shrapnel wounds.
A soldier near the Westgate shopping mall.
