21st September midday unknown attackers stormed into the Westgate mall launching grenades and spraying bullets at civilians indiscriminately. At first it appeared like a normal robbery and the police responded 90 minutes later around 1:45pm and by then the attackers had massacred many from the rooftop and proceeded down to the Nakumatt supermarket where thousands were shopping and went ahead with their senseless killing only sparing a few who could cite certain Islamic prayers.
The mall would then fall under siege that lasted for nearly three days,Kenya government initially put the number of attackers at 15 a figure that CCTV footage collected dismissed. Another claim by the government was that the attackers were killed in the rumble when the floors crumbled down.
However according to a new report by New York Police Department tasked to conduct the investigations at the Westgate was released on Tuesday morning in New York and the investigators seem to have confirmed Kenyans worst fears that the deadly attackers might have escaped and still out there walking free.
Lt. Detective Commander Kevin Yorke, who prepared and presented the report,questioned the legitimacy of Kenya authorities that the attackers were killed in the explosion that brought down several floors. "As a cop, I’m very skeptical of claims until I see proof,” said Yorke, and added that there
is “a lot of doubt in my mind it is true.”
While reconstructing the attack,NYPD report says that the four attackers operated in sets of two and coordinated their movements via phone,this can easily be seen on CCTV footage aired on local TVs. There is no such a clear truth that there was an hostage situation,this is in contrary to the Kenya authorities report that the attackers held people hostage.
The attackers used grenades and AK-47 rifles and were more motivated to kill as many as possible and only spared those who could say certain Islam prayers. At the end about 72 deaths was reported by the Kenyan authorities.
According to the report,one of the Al Shabaab fighters was wounded and by 6pm same day 21st,the four converged at a store room of the supermarket and stayed up there for like 6 hours,during which they attended to their wounds,re energised themselves with food and water,they even prayed.
At about 12:15am the cameras were either tilted away or destroyed by the attackers and that's the last time they were ever seen. The NYPD believes they played to the theatrics and that was the probable time they escaped.
This is a news that will send cold down many spines not only in Kenya but world. Having such deadly terrorists out there. The report also claims that there is no evidence that the military killed any of the attackers but proves that there was an infighting between the Recce and military resulting into the death of Recce squad commander.
Kenya government however still stands its grounds that the attackers were killed in the explosion that brought down several floors even though no evidence of the dead bodies has been availed to the public at the same time NYPD as part of foreign forensic investigations dismissed the claims saying there is no evidence that they were killed and most probably escaped.
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