How GSU freed mall attack hostages

 

Rescued hostages are escorted by police to safety on September 21, 2013 at Westgate Shopping Mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi which was under attack by terrorist. JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• The coordinated operation is hurriedly halted after one of the officers leading the team is hit by friendly fire. The officer, in blue jeans, had been directing his colleagues as they cautiously moved from corner to corner with their weapons interlocked before he was shot.

By ZADOCK ANGIRA
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Details of how the General Service Unit’s Recce squad stormed the Westgate mall and fought terrorists emerged Thursday.

The attackers killed 67 people and injured more than 175 others.

Sections of a Closed Circuit Television footage seen by the Nation show that barely two hours after the deadly attack, officers from the Recce unit had taken control of most of the building.

The footage shows the GSU officers and the Nairobi deputy county commander, Mr Moses Ombati, at around 2.32pm, moving from room to room freeing hundreds of Kenyans who had been trapped in the building.

The officers, dressed in civilian clothing with black bullet proof vests and helmets, are captured entering a financial institution in a single line before adopting an extended formation.

Once done with one room, they moved to the next, combing them one after another, as another team watched over them.

Most of them are armed with rifles, and pistols tucked in their waists, as they move in corridors and staircases. As they continue with the operation, their colleagues in the outer cordon are later seen directing people out to the parking area in a single line with their hands raised.

The coordinated operation is hurriedly halted after one of the officers leading the team is hit by friendly fire. The officer, in blue jeans, had been directing his colleagues as they cautiously moved from corner to corner with their weapons interlocked before he was shot.

There is little activity the next day, Sunday. However on Monday, Kenya Defence Forces soldiers are seen patrolling the area with very few gunshots heard. The same day in the afternoon, the area is engulfed in smoke.

Meanwhile, attempts by journalists to interview relatives of missing persons who had gone to the City Mortuary to identify their kin after more bodies were found in the mall rubble were unsuccessful.

KDF personnel took control of the relatives and drove off with them to an unknown destination, denying journalists opportunity for interview.

By yesterday, the number of missing persons had reduced to nine from the previous 60.