Kenyan security forces were locked in a standoff on Sunday with gunmen who killed at least 39 people in an assault at an upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi, where the al Qaeda-linked militants were holding an unknown number of hostages.
The Somali Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on the Kenyan capital's Westgate mall, which is frequented by Westerners as well as Kenyans. Several foreigners, including a Canadian diplomat, were among the dead.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said more than 39 people had been killed, among them close members of his own family. A senior government official said on his Twitter feed that more than 300 people had been wounded. The dead included children, and the wounded ranged in age from 2 to 78.
France said two of its citizens had been killed, and Canada said two Canadians had died, including a 29-year-old diplomat.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said there were no Americans among the dead but that several US citizens had been hurt and the wife of a US diplomat working for the US Agency for International Development was killed.
Police said the attackers were holding an unknown number of people on Sunday and the standoff was focused on the mall's Nakumatt supermarket, one of Kenya's biggest chains.
Kenyatta said the security forces were engaged in a "delicate operation," with the top priority being to safeguard the lives of people being held.
Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda and is battling Kenyan and other African peacekeepers in Somalia, had repeatedly threatened attacks on Kenyan soil if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of the Horn of Africa country.
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