Kenya military names Westgate mall attack suspects

Four men believed to have been involved in the
deadly shopping centre attack in Nairobi last
month have been named.
The Kenyan military said Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar
Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and Umayr - shown in new
CCTV footage - were killed during the standoff.
Kenya said previously 10-15 militants had been
involved, but the police chief says the figure may now
be four to six.
The al-Shabab group said it carried out the attack on
the Westgate mall on 21 September, leaving at least 67
dead.
The al-Qaeda-linked group said the attack was in
retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.
Too early?
The naming of the men came as CCTV footage was
aired showing four attackers calmly walking through a
room in the mall holding machine guns.
Kenya Defence Forces spokesman Maj Emmanuel
Chirchir told Reuters news agency: "I confirm these
were the terrorists; they all died in the raid."
Reuters quoted Maj Chirchir as saying that al-Sudani
was an "experienced fighter" from Sudan and was
believed to be the leader of the group.
Maj Chirchir said Nabhan was a Kenyan of Arab origin
and al-Kene a Somali linked to al-Shabab. Further
details about Umayr had not yet been verified, he said.
A Kenyan security analyst told the BBC that at least two
of the names would be familiar to the Kenyan
intelligence services.
Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo told Kenya's KTN
television station it was now believed that four to six
gunmen had carried out the attack, not 10 to 15.
"None of them managed to escape from the building
after the attack," he said.
Mr Kimaiyo also said that wanted British woman
Samantha Lewthwaite had not been involved.
"We have also established that she was not part of the
attackers in the building. There was no woman," he
said.
Ms Lewthwaite, 29, is the widow of one of the four
suicide bombers who attacked London on 7 July 2005.
Kenya had earlier said five attackers were killed in the
security operation and that nine people were in
custody.
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Nairobi says the latest
CCTV footage is from a limited part of the complex and,
with some eyewitnesses reporting a two-pronged
attack, it is too early to say definitively how many
gunmen were in the building.
In addition to the 67 people killed in the attack, a
further 39 are still missing, according to the Kenyan
Red Cross.
Al-Shabab is banned as a terrorist group by both the US
and the UK and is believed to have between 7,000 and
9,000 fighters.
Its members are fighting to create an Islamic state in
Somalia.
About 4,000 Kenyan troops were sent to Somalia in
October 2011 to help pro-government forces end two
decades of violence, with clan-based warlords and
Islamist militants all battling for control of the country.
On Saturday, Islamist fighters in southern Somalia said
Western forces had launched a night-time raid on one
of their bases.
No-one has admitted the attack. US and French special
forces have carried out raids in Somalia in recent years.
It is not clear whether the raid was linked to Westgate.

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