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dpa
Nairobi
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack under way at a Nairobi hotel on Tuesday, as security forces were sent in following explosions and gunfire.
“A group of armed assailants attacked the Dusit (Hotel) complex in a suspected terror attack,” Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet said in statement. “We are aware that armed criminals are holding up inside the hotel and specialist forces are now currently flushing them out,” he added. There had been injuries, he said, but did not give a number. Al-Shabaab, a militant group which regularly launches attacks in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, claimed resposibility on its Radio Andalus.
“Our brave Mujaahideens are engaging in ongoing fighting inside Nairobi against the infidels... The attack started with a bombing,” they said.
Television footage showed members of the bomb squad outside the hotel, smoke coming from buildings, and ambulances arriving at the scene.
“Our people are still on the ground, we shall communicate when we have information,” Kenyan Red Cross spokesperson Noellah Musundi told dpa by phone, refusing to confirm whether there were deaths. The United States embassy in Kenya issued a security alert for its citizens, advising them to stay away from the area.
In one of the worst terrorist incidents in the Kenyan capital, at least 67 people were killed in an attack on the Westgate Mall in 2013 claimed by al-Shabaab. The attack at the Dusit comes on the third anniversary of an attack on a Kenyan military base in which almost 200 soldiers were killed.
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16/01/2019
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