Hiiraan Online

Intelligence agencies around the world, including Canada, are conducting their own Westgate investigation since the Shabab has become an international terrorism threat.

And Western and Somali intelligence and law enforcement sources close to the investigation, who spoke to the Toronto Star on the condition of anonymity, dispute the Kenyan government’s reporting of the event.

Almost every detail provided by the Kenyan authorities in the early days after the attack that began on Saturday, Sept. 21 — the number of hostages, terrorists and how they were armed — has proven false, they say. 

But further complicating the findings of the Westgate investigation was an interview posted Friday with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s legal attaché in Nairobi, who backed some of the claims made by Kenyan forces. 

“Nobody is under the impression that we have fully identified the entire network in this attack, however. That’s why the investigation continues,” Dennis Brady said according to a transcript of the interview posted on the FBI’s website .

Yet he adds: “We believe, as do the Kenyan authorities, that the four gunmen inside the mall were killed,” and that “three sets of remains were found.” 

Brady said the Kenyans set up a “very secure crime scene perimeter, making an escape unlikely,” a fact that has been disputed by others, including the New York Police Department’s anti-terrorism unit. 

Continued misinformation coupled with a failed raid by an elite U.S. commando force in southern Somalia two weeks later has bolstered the confidence of the Shabab, which warns more attacks are imminent.

The Kenyan government promised an investigation after reports emerged that security services looted the mall’s shops, and in the confusion shot at a police team known as the General Service Unit — claims that Kenyan authorities deny.

However a report that was leaked to a Kenyan paper this week was largely dismissed as an ongoing effort to cover up its own failures. Kenyan authorities maintain the attackers were killed after refusing to negotiate.

According to one East African-based intelligence source, the four seen on the mall’s CCTV cameras escaped early Sunday morning. Previous footage showed them shooting at mannequins and taking clothing, perhaps in an effort to later disguise themselves.

“They were there in the mall for 12 to 18 hours, no more,” said a Somali source, who has been tracking the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab for years.

“It’s nowhere near as sophisticated as Mumbai,” said one American source, referring to the 2008 terrorist attack by the Pakistan-based militants Lashkar-e-Taiba that killed 165, along with the nine gunmen.

“This is actually a pretty straightforward . . . the concept of we send two guys in the front door and two guys in the backdoor and we kill a bunch of people,” said the intelligence official. “When you look at the amount of ammunition they were carrying, they weren’t carrying a lot,” he added, indicating it was unlikely they had planned to lay siege and take hostages.

The 67 victims who have been identified ranged in age from 8 to 78 years old and hailed from 13 different countries. Canadians Annemarie Desloges, a 29-year-old diplomat who worked at Canada’s High Commission in Nairobi, and Naguib Damji, a 59-year-old Vancouver businessman who was having coffee in the mall, were among the dead. The exact tally is unknown as there are reports of others still missing.

Al Shabab spokesperson Ali Dhere gloated at the criticism of the Kenyan government in identifying the attackers or number killed, recently telling Channel 4 journalist Jamal Osman: “Something that happened at the heart of their country, and they still don’t know whether the men have escaped or not and how many they were. That shows their weakness.”

An NYPD report released in December also criticizes the Kenyan government’s response. The analysis was conducted by the NYPD’s anti-terrorism unit, based on interviews with witnesses and public information.

The attack began in the mall at 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 when the militants approached in cars. They lobbed hand grenades and shot indiscriminately, moving in pairs until they later came together in a storeroom of the Nakumatt, the mall’s grocery store.

“These guys go back into the storeroom, back in the Nakumatt, and they’re there basically for hours. The time stamp on that video footage runs from 7 o’clock at night until 1 o’clock in the morning,” said one U.S. source.

The police’s GSU team, along with private citizens and security officials, helped evacuate many of the mall’s occupants — photos of terrified children and wounded women and men quickly circulated around the world. Police were reportedly close to the four terrorists hiding in the Nakumatt when, in the confusion, Kenyan Defence Forces reportedly killed a police officer and injured another in a “friendly fire” incident.

“Probably the greatest tragedy is the police tactical team, they were actually pretty good and at the point when the friendly fire occurs they’re in close proximity to the terrorists when they get shot from behind,” a U.S. law enforcement intelligence source told the Star. “There’s a real possibility the police could have ended this thing a lot sooner.”

The shooting delayed the operation. “At that point, everybody pulls out of the building to regroup and reassess and then, it’s just the military doesn’t go in because they can’t see in the dark and they’re cautious.”

Neither the police nor the military were equipped with night vision goggles.

In the ensuing confusion the attackers are believed to have fled. One of the alleged suspects, later named in press reports as Somalia-born Norwegian citizen Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, was reportedly wounded in the attack and is being pursued in southern Somalia, says one intelligence source. Images captured on the CCTV cameras show Dhuhulow with a leg injury. His condition and exact location is unknown.

On Sept. 23, long after the militants had reportedly left, a fire sparked during the military’s rescue attempt caused part of the mall to collapse. It wasn’t until 78 hours after the attack began, on the evening of Sept. 24, that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the mall secure.

Despite the simplicity of the attack on what intelligence officials often refer to as a “soft target” — malls, hotels, community centres, as opposed to embassies or government buildings — the operation had reportedly been planned for months and involved militants in Mombasa, Kenya, who were directed by the Shabab’s leadership based in Somalia.

A well-known Shabab commander who goes by the name “Ikrima” was in contact with the attackers in the mall and that communication, said one intelligence source, was tracked by U.S. authorities and is what sparked the U.S. Navy SEALs raid in Barawe, Somalia, two weeks later.

Although unnamed American intelligence officials told NBC the raid was disrupted when a fighter went outside to smoke, security officials told the Star that the militants had become suspicious once the American elite forces jammed the Internet.

“You have no idea how sophisticated these guys are in their communication,” said one intelligence source.

The Shabab claimed credit for the attack shortly after it began, writing on Twitter: “The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders.

“For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it’s time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land.”

But it is believed the attack’s origin traces back to Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa, following the killing of a prominent militant sheik who served as an inspiration for local jihadis. Fingers pointed immediately to Kenyan police for the drive-by shooting death of Aboud Rogo Mohammed, as they have been accused in the past of assassinations and “disappearances” of terrorism suspects.

The Mombasa group later connected with the Shabab’s leadership in Somalia, said a source, where they received training before crossing back into Kenya a few months before the attack.