/ 18 October 2013

Remains delivered to morgue following Westgate siege

Remains Delivered To Morgue Following Westgate Siege

Officials in Kenya say two boxes of charred human remains were delivered to the city morgue from Westgate mall and that four AK-47 assault rifles were found alongside the remains, indicating they are of the gunmen who stormed the mall on September 21, killing more than 60 people.

A city morgue official said the two boxes arrived on Thursday, and that a team of foreigners padlocked the boxes on Friday.

A security official said one of the four gunmen seen in security footage is a Norwegian-Somali whose last name is Dhuhulow and the first or middle name is Abdi. The official said four AK-47 rifles, 11 AK-47 magazines and one RPG were recovered at the mall on Thursday.

Both officials insisted on anonymity because they couldn't speak publicly.

Meanwhile, on October 5 Kenya's military spokesperson named four men who are alleged to have been involved in the attack, which killed at least 67 people.

Closed-circuit television footage from the Westgate mall was broadcast on Kenyan television channels, apparently showing at least four alleged attackers with guns walking around the mall's supermarket and a storage room.

'These were the terrorists'
"I confirm these were the terrorists, they all died in the raid," Major Emmanuel Chirchir, spokesperson for the Kenya Defence Forces, told Reuters.

He gave their names as Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and Umayr.

Previously, the country stated that between 10 and 15 militants were involved in the mall attack.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed not to bow to the al-Shabab group that claimed the Westgate mall bloodbath and threatened more attacks if Kenya failed to pull its troops out of Somalia. – Sapa-AP, additional reporting by Reuters