62 Tewas, Pasukan Kenya Klaim Berhasil Kuasai Westage Mall
62 People Died, Kenyan Troops Regain Control of Westgate Mall
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
 b2.jpg)
SETIDAKNYA 62 orang telah tewas sejak kawanan orang bersenjata merebut pusat perbelanjaan mewah yang dipadati turis dan ekspatriat pada Sabtu, meskipun angka itu diperkirakan akan meningkat karena lebih banyak jenazah ditemukan.
Polisi Kenya dan pasukan militer melancarkan serangan operasi kemarin, yang berjanji untuk mengakhiri pengambilalihan mal sebelum malam, tapi pada hari Senin terdengar empat ledakan keras di ibukota, seperti dilansir metro.co.uk.
Sebelas tentara terluka sejak Minggu, sementara tiga penyerang tewas dan sepuluh lagi ditangkap.
Pasukan Kenya menguasai hampir semua pusat perbelanjaan diduga keterkitanteroris al-Qaeda menewaskan puluhan orang selama dua hari terakhir, seperti yang diumumkan enam warga Inggris kini diyakini telah tewas dalam serangan itu.
Pihak berwenang mengatakan tentara berada di semua lantai dari mal Westgate di Nairobi, meskipun pejuang al-Shabaab bisa bersembunyi.
Menulis di Twitter , inspektur jenderal polisi Kenya, David Kimaiyo, mengatakan: "Semua lantai telah diambil alih. Kita di sini bukan untuk memberi makan para penyerang tetapi untuk menyelesaikan dan menghukum mereka."
Menteri Dalam Negeri, Joseph Ole Lenku mengatakan evakuasi sandera telah ´berlangsung sangat, sangat baik´, dengan pelayanannya ´sangat yakin´ hanya ada beberapa orang, jika ada, pengunjung yang masih terjebak di dalam gedung.
Al-Shabaab, yang berarti ´pemuda´ dalam bahasa Arab, berasal dari Somalia, tapi Kenya mengatakan para penyerang, semua orang meskipun beberapa dari mereka telah mengenakan pakaian wanita, adalah kelompok multinasional.
"Kami punya ide orang-orang ini dan mereka jelas koleksi multinasional dari seluruh dunia," kata panglima militer Kenya, Jenderal Julius Karangi.
Setidaknya enam warga Inggris tewas dalam serangan teror, dengan korban lainnya berasal dari Perancis, Kanada, India, Ghana, Afrika Selatan dan Cina. Pada Senin malam, Menteri Pertahanan Philip Hammond memperingatkan Inggris jumlah korban tewas cenderung meningkat.
Al-Shabaab - dianggap memiliki beberapa ribu pejuang termasuk dari Timur Tengah dengan pengalaman dari Irak dan Afghanistan - mengatakan telah meluncurkan serangan untuk meyakinkan pasukan Kenya untuk menarik diri dari Somalia, yang tanpa pemerintah pusat sejak tahun 1991 ketika para panglima perang menggulingkan diktator Mohamed Siad Barre.
AT LEAST 62 people have died since gunmen seized the upmarket shopping centre popular with tourists and expats on Saturday, although that number is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered.
Kenyan police and troops launched a counter-operation yesterday, pledging to end the takeover of the mall before the end of the day, but by Monday smoke was rising from the shopping complex as four loud explosions rang out across the capital.
Eleven troops have been injured since Sunday, while three attackers have been killed and ten more arrested.
Kenyan troops have taken control of nearly all of the shopping centre where al-Qaeda linked terrorists killed dozens of people over the last two days, as it was announced six Britons are now believed to have died in the attack.
Authorities said troops were on all floors of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, although they conceded al-Shabaab fighters could be hiding.
Writing on Twitter, the inspector general of the Kenyan police, David Kimaiyo, said: ‘Taken control of all the floors. We’re not here to feed the attackers with pastries but to finish and punish them.’
Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said the evacuation of hostages had ‘gone very, very well’, with his ministry ‘very certain’ there were only a handful, if any, of people still trapped in the building.
Al-Shabaab, which means ‘the youth’ in Arabic, originated in Somalia, but Kenya said the attackers, all men although some of them had been wearing women’s clothing, were a multinational group.
‘We have an idea who these people are and they are clearly a multinational collection from all over the world,’ said the chief of the country’s defence forces, General Julius Karangi.
At least six Britons have died in the terror attack, with other victims hailing from France, Canada, India, Ghana, South Africa and China. On Monday night, defence secretary Philip Hammond warned the British death-toll was likely to increase further still.
Al-Shabaab – thought to have several thousand fighters including those from the Middle East with experience from Iraq and Afghanistan – said it had launched the attack to convince Kenyan troops to withdraw from Somalia, which has been without a central government since 1991 when warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
