NAIROBI, Kenya –0 Kenyan army and police forces stormed a massive four-story upper-scale shopping mall in Nairobi today that had been held by Islamic terrorists for nearly three days. Kenyan forces say they now control the Westgate Shopping Mall but they’re continuing to hunt down terrorists and look for hostages. A group of 10 to 15 al-Shabab gunmen, based in Somalia, seized the mall, going from store to store shooting at customers and taking hostages. The Kenya Red Cross said at least 62 people were killed about 180 were wounded, and more than 60 people missing. CNN reported some of the terrorists had been recruited from the U.S., and quoting al-Shabab sources, identified a 27-year-old Kansas City man as one of the terrorists, although that couldn’t be immediately confirmed. ABC News reports the Somalian group has had success in recruiting members in the U.S., especially from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The terrorist attack was especially embarrassing to the Kenyan government because relatives of Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, were killed, as was a major African poet, author and Ghanian statesman Kofi Awoonor.
Monday, Sept. 23, 4 p.m.
