Two bodies of slain Kenyan soldiers recovered from Westgate Mall rubble as probe continues

An Interpol team investing the Westgate terrorist attack arrive at the mall Tuesday. [PHOTO: TABITHA OTWORI/STANDARD]

By MOSES MICHIRA and NYAMBEGA GISESA

Two bodies of KDF personnel were retrieved and eight limbs collected from the Westgate mall Tuesday as investigators continue to find clues on identities of the attackers.

The probe team was shuffling between the site of the attack and the City Mortuary as they sort to piece together leads amid rising frustration as most of the recovered bodies belonged to hostages, according to Intelligence sources.

The bodies of the slain soldiers were ferried to an undisclosed location in a military ambulance, taking the toll of dead KDF officers to eight.

Police officers involved in the search mission estimate that it might take another four days to dig through the rubble.

However, chances of finding bodies of the attackers continue dimishing, with fears that most of highly-trained gunmen may have slipped out of mall.

More trapped

Sources within the search mission confirmed the retrieval of the two bodies, but expressed fears that several others were still trapped in the debris.

“There are more bodies, but the retrieval has been hampered by the amount of debris,” said one of the personnel.

A paramedic attached to the Armed Forces Memorial Hospital confirmed that the two bodies had taken the toll of dead soldiers to eight.

The bodies are said to be those of a 20 Para unit and a Lieutenant from the 75th Artillery battalion who were gunned down by snipers.

Sources within the British Intelligence said the attackers may have been trained in Chechnya to have mounted such an operation. “It would take very highly-trained attackers to mount such an attack; they must have been trained in Chechnya.”

As the probe continues, there were new fears that tens of hostages may have been killed by Kenya’s military when it used heavy explosives to eject the Al Shabaab attackers, who are feared to have long slipped out of the upscale shopping mall.

There are new concerns that a decision by the KDF to use anti-tank missile when they blasted a section of the Westgate Shopping Mall may have been ill-informed as any survivors may have been killed.

Fresh details from the four-day siege that ended on Wednesday last week indicate that most of the bodies that have been retrieved were hostages, but it is unclear if they were already dead when the soldiers resorted to heavy weaponry.

Hope fading

Our sources indicate that the search for bodies had been intensified with authorities hoping that the attackers’ bodies would be found in the rubble, but those prospects were fading fast as the mission enters its seventh day today.

Nine other bodies, thought to be hostages, were moved early Monday morning at about 3 am.

Eight limbs were also recovered yesterday and taken to the City Mortuary, confirming earlier reports that the hostages were subjected to the worst forms of torture by the more than 15 attackers, and their bodies mutilated.

Multiple sources involved in the search mission through the heavily damaged shopping mall told The Standard of the unreported bodies, adding that there were ‘several’ others that were yet to be retrieved by yesterday afternoon.

“I have seen the two bodies (belonging to fallen soldiers) which were recovered earlier, but we are certain that there are more still trapped in the debris,” said the source at the Westgate Mall Tuesday.

The search is led by soldiers from the Military Police who have cordoned off the shopping mall using six-foot high temporary wall.