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(Reuters) - President Barack Obama called Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday to offer condolences over what the White House called a "terrorist attack" by the al Shabaab group at a Nairobi shopping mall that has killed almost 70 people.Islamist militants still held hostages on Sunday at the shopping mall, where brief volleys of gunfire interrupted hours of stalemate."President Obama called President Kenyatta of Kenya this morning to express condolences to the government and people of Kenya for the terrorist attack carried out by al-Shabaab yesterday on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi," the White House said in a statement. "President Obama reiterated U.S. support for Kenya's efforts to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice."Five American citizens were among those injured in the shootings at the mall, said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.There were no reports of any Americans among the dead, said Harf.Republican Representative Peter King of New York, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the attack showed the growing influence of al Qaeda linked groups in Africa."This shows the really growing influence of al Qaeda in Africa. You have al Shabaab now in Somalia going off into Kenya, carrying out an attack outside its own country," King said on ABC's "This Week."The attack showed that "al Qaeda and its affiliates are still extremely powerful and still able to really strike terror into the hearts of people, attacking a shopping mall, it has no military significance at all," King said.
Kenya: Nairobi Attack Exposes Flawed U.S. Terror PoliciesBy Ramy Srour, 24 September 2013 Washington — In the aftermath of the worst terror attack in East Africa in three years, foreign policy scholars here are urging the U.S. government to rethink its counter-terror policy in the region.As the number of victims rises to 62 in an armed siege that has held dozens of people hostage in a major mall in uptown Nairobi, many are suggesting that the Somali Al Shabaab militant organisation, reportedly linked to Al-Qaeda, may be stronger and better organised than previously thought.Just over a year ago, joint U.S.-Kenyan forces managed to expel Al Shabaab from their last stronghold in southern Somalia, leading the U.S. government to call it a success story for U.S. counter-terror policy. But what has taken place over the weekend in Nairobi's Westgate Mall could suggest otherwise."This attack should be seen as a call to action," Katherine Zimmermann, of the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative think tank here, told IPS. "What the attack shows is that the fight against terrorism in Africa has stagnated and that groups like Al Shabaab are much stronger than the U.S. administration thought."In coming days, U.S. policymakers may look anew at their counter-terror approach, particularly in Kenya, where the government has been a key U.S. ally."What this attack does is strengthen the notion that the region ought not to be seen solely through the lenses of counter-terrorism, sacrificing other equally important issues the international community should address," Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on non-traditional security threats at the Brookings Institution, a think tank here, told IPS."Current U.S. counter-terror strategy in the region has focused primarily on targeted attacks against Al Shabaab, while it should have addressed the structural causes of their radicalisation."Felbab-Brown cites high unemployment, a weak Somali economy and widespread corruption as the main reasons behind the radicalisation of youths that have joined Al Shabaab. U.S. counter-terror efforts, she says, have devoted little or no attention to these issues.The U.S. government delivered a total of 445 million dollars in security aid to Somalia between 2008 and 2011, almost 50 percent of total U.S. aid to the country during that period. What seems to be missing from the U.S. strategy, Felbab-Brown says, is "a real effort to improve the Somali economy and urge the government to foster a broader political inclusion of these youth".Few analysts would suggest that the issue of counter-terrorism should be left off the agenda in East Africa entirely. But experts in Washington are increasingly urging that U.S. strategy include concrete efforts aimed at strengthening civil society and rebuilding the Somali judiciary system, which remains dysfunctional following decades of civil war.Following the attack, the U.S. government immediately promised to aid the Kenyan government in the aftermath of the attack."We have offered our assistance to the government of Kenya and stand ready to help in any way we can," Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday. ...click on link for rest of article.
Right. Just the same way that Russia will make sure Syria gets rid of its chemical weapons.
