NAIROBI, Kenya — The bloody standoff at a Kenyan shopping mall edged closer to a conclusion on Monday night, with Kenyan officials saying that their troops were securing the building and that there were no more civilians trapped inside.
"We're in control of #Westgate," Kenya's Interior Ministry said in a Twitter message late Monday night, referring to the large, upscale mall that Islamist militants stormed on Saturday, killing more than 60 people.
Among the militants were two or three young American men who appeared to be of Somali or Arab origin, Kenya's foreign minister, Amina Mohamed. said Monday. In an interview on PBS, Ms. Mohamed said the American attackers were originally from Minnesota or Missouri. "That just goes to underline the global nature of the war that we're fighting," she said.
The State Department's senior spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said: We have no definitive evidence of the nationalities or identities of the perpetrators at this time. We will continue to look into these reports."
For more than two days, Kenyan forces have struggled to vanquish the militants, who, after killing shoppers, holed up in various corners of the mall with military-grade weaponry. Hundreds of elite Kenyan troops — backed by armored personnel carriers, helicopters, planes and security officials from Israel, France, Britain and the United States — have been deployed, but the militants, estimated to number from 10 to 15, refused to surrender and held their ground.
By late Monday night, the sound of gunfire had tapered off and Kenyan news media reported that all the militants had been killed.
"We believe all hostages have been released," said the Kenya National Disaster Operation Center in a Twitter message. "Special forces and KDF soldiers combing the building. Situation of hostiles to be confirmed."
Kenyan officials have repeatedly tried to reassure the country — and the world — that they were bringing the crisis under control, mindful of the damage to the nation's image as a cornerstone of stability in an often turbulent region.
"This will end tonight," Kenyan officials had declared as a major rescue operation got under way on Sunday evening. But shortly thereafter, three Kenyan commandos were shot dead at close range and several hostages were killed as Kenyan forces tried to move in on militants hiding in a dark corner of the mall, Western officials said.
When The Standard, one of Kenya's biggest newspapers, hit the stands on Monday with the headline, "The Final Assault," the sound of gunfire and explosives was still echoing through central Nairobi, spreading even more fear among Kenyans, who have been shocked and demoralized by the events over the past three days. A cone of black smoke rising from the roof of the mall could be seen like a signal fire from all around the city.
Kenya is a crucial American partner, whose security forces work closely with their Western counterparts to contain Islamist militants in the region. Now Kenya's capital, considered an oasis of prosperity in this part of Africa and an important base for Western embassies and businesses, has become a battleground in the conflict, and there is growing concern that this attack will not be the last.
Several witnesses said that some of the ringleaders of the assault — in which masked gunmen moved methodically through the crowded mall on Saturday, killing men, women and children — may have escaped during the initial confusion. One witness said that an assailant quickly tore off his clothes and changed into a new outfit before running out, hands raised, blending in with a crowd of fleeing civilians.
Security officials in Nairobi said that two other militants — both women who appeared to be directing other assailants during the killings — also managed to escape after the initial stage of the attack, raising fears that well-trained terrorists could be on the loose in Nairobi. Several witnesses have said that some of the militants were clearly not African and may have been from Western countries.
Reporting was contributed by Reuben Kyama and Tyler Hicks from Nairobi; Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem; Mark Mazzetti from Washington; Mohammed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia; William K. Rashbaum from New York; and Alan Cowell from London.
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