Two or three Americans of Somali or Arab origin were among the gunmen who launched a brazen attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, over the weekend, a Kenyan official said.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told The Washington Post Monday evening that there “two or three” Americans in the attack that left 62 people dead.
However, ABC News reported that the New York FBI said Mohamed’s claim is “unconfirmed.”
Kenyan officials seized control of the complex on Monday, but warned that there might be gunmen hiding in some of the mall stores. The gunmen were from the al-Shabab militia, who broke into the mall on Saturday before shooting customers and taking them hostage.
Sixty-three people remain missing and 175 people were injured. Most of those killed are believed to be Kenyans.
Kenyan forces said on Monday afternoon that nearly all the hostages were released. But an Al-Shabab Twitter account said its members are still in control. “Our Mujahideen are in full control of #westgate. May Allah bless them,” it said.
There were earlier reports that Americans were involved in the attack, which prompted an FBI investigation. A Twitter account said that three attackers were American, with two coming from the Minneapolis area.
However, an al-Shabab commander who called himself Abu Omar, told the BBC that there were no Americans involved.
“At this point we have no definitive evidence of the nationalities or identities of the perpetrators,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN Monday.
On Monday, Kenyan authorities said they will “finish and punish” the attackers.
“Taken control of all the floors. We’re not here to feed the attackers with pastries but to finish and punish them,” Kenyan police Inspector General David Kimaiyo said via Twitter.
Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said the evacuation of hostages had gone “very, very well” and that Kenyan officials were “very certain” that few if any hostages were left in the building.
Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group, al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said the hostage-takers were well-armed and ready to take on the Kenyan forces.
An al-Shabab spokesman, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, said in an audio file posted on a militant website that the attackers had been ordered to “take punitive action against the hostages” if force was used to try to rescue them.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
