Westgate Mall in Kenya reopens after attack by terrorists in 2013

#westgatemall #nairobi #kenya #alshabaab #garissaattack Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi had witnessed a terrorist attack in September 2013 and 67 people were killed in the attack carried out by al-Shabaab militants. The mall has now reopened as reported in bbc.com dated 18 July 2015.
It may be recalled that in September 2013, al-Shabaab gunmen had entered the mall and fired on shoppers. Subsequently, there was a siege over four days.

Anyway, half of the shops are opening again after an extensive refurbishment and this reopening has been planned a week before the visit of US President Barack Obama to Nairobi - a sign, the city's governor said, that the capital was safe. Several portions of the mall were badly damaged by fire and it is not clear if those sections are reopening. Al-Shabaab, a Somali Islamist group, had accepted responsibility for the attack which it had done to protest against Kenya's military operations in Somalia. There were four gunmen and all of them are believed to have died during the assault. The armed militants had targeted foreign nationals as well as Kenyans.
After the Westgate siege, al-Shabaab militants has launched several high-profile attacks like the attack on a university in Garissa – it was in April and 150 people died in the attack.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Security forces kill four Taliban gunmen before they could storm Kabul guesthouse

Security forces killed four Taliban gunmen in a six hour overnight gun battle in the Wazir Akbar Khan district in Kabul – the area is home to a number of embassies and official buildings. The assailants had come armed with weapons like a rocket propelled grenade launcher and other weapons. As per the interior ministry there has been no civilian or military casualties.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 27 May 2015.

The Taliban has accepted responsibility for the attack.
The four attackers had one RPG launcher, three AK-47s and one grenade launcher.
As indicated by the Afghanistan's interior ministry, the target was the Heetal Guesthouse which had been attacked by the Taliban earlier in 2009 also. The guesthouse is now called the Rabbani Guesthouse which is a favorite with foreigners.
It is owned by the Rabbani family, including Afghanistan's current Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, and its former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)


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Police believe that six more terror suspects are still lurking in Paris

#CharlieHebdo #ManuelValls #BenjaminNetanyahu In the opinion of the police, as many as six members of a terrorist cell that was involved in the Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo could still be at large – one of these was a man who was seen driving a car that is registered to the widow of one of the gunmen.
The authorities were searching the Paris area for the Mini Cooper that is registered in the name of Hayat Boumeddiene, the widow of Amedy Coulibaly – the woman, as per Turkish officials, is presently in Syria.
These disclosures have been made even as France has deployed 10,000 troops to protect sensitive sites that take into account Jewish schools and neighborhoods. This has been done following the attacks that killed 17 people last week. Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, apart from Coulibaly, their friend who claimed ties to Islamic extremists in the Middle East, have been killed in clashes with police.
It is not clear on how many members there were in the terror cell. While one of the police officials indicated that the cell consisted of about 10 members, and that "five or six could still be at large" another official believes that the network consisted of about eight people, including Hayat Boumeddiene.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls has remarked that the manhunt is urgent because "the threat is still present." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone to the Paris kosher grocery where four of the hostages were killed by the terrorists.

Another hostage crisis - armed men storm into apparent in Ghent and take hostage

#Ghent Coming in the wake of #sydneysiege in Australia, four gunmen are reported to have stormed into an apartment located on Pilorijnstraat in the Belgian city of Ghent today and taken at least one hostage as confirmed by the state prosecution service.
The police have cordoned off a wide perimeter around the scene in the Dampoort area of the city in the working-class neighborhood and have asked the local residents to remain indoors. The incident has sparked fears in the region that the siege could be related to terror activities.
This fear is because of the incident in Sydney where an Islamist fanatic took a number of hostages in a cafe today. However, as per initial reports, there is no evidence that it is linked to terrorism but could be related to some drug ring. Two persons have been taken in custody without violence. It has been clarified by a federal police spokeswoman Annemie Serlippens that there appears to be nothing political about the incident.
Incidentally, this is the second instance in six weeks’ time that #Ghent has seen a hostage situation – earlier, on October 23, a man was taken hostage on the top floor of an apartment building at Charles de Kerchovelaan – that involved an unpaid debt.