Investigation Moves Slowly in Kenyan Mall Siege

The crater of rubble where the mall collapsed is still so hot that investigators are having a hard time examining it for clues. None of the bodies of the militants killed in the deadly siege have been clearly identified. Even the four attackers captured on security cameras are being called “pink shirt, white shirt, black shirt, blue shirt,” because investigators are not sure of their real names, said an official who had been briefed on the investigation.

Nearly three weeks after militants stormed the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing more than 60 men, women and children, there are still as many questions as answers.

Kenyan officials, using communications between the attackers overheard by witnesses, images captured on security cameras and information from unidentified sources, have released the names of some suspected of being assailants, but they are believed to be noms de guerre, not their birth names. Investigators are still tracing calls made from inside the mall during the attack to try to determine the precise identities of the combatants, the official said.

Even the number of militants remains unknown. Kenyan officials had said that 10 to 15 militants attacked the mall with automatic rifles and grenades, but that number has fallen to as low as four and was probably no more than six.

“For Kenya, there’s still not a lot of clarity about the specifics of the attack,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an expert on Somalia and the Shabab at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.

…

“It’s been obvious over the course of this year that they’ve been involved in increasingly sophisticated attacks,” Mr. Gartenstein-Ross said. “They’ve clearly shown the ability to project power into Kenya.”

Read the full article here.