Kenya: Intelligence warned of Al- Shabaab threat before mall attack

A number of Kenya’s Cabinet members
and defense officials were warned about
the possibility that the terror group Al-
Shabaab was planning to carry out a
Westgate-style attack a year before
gunman stormed the Nairobi mall,
according to several police and
intelligence sources.
The warnings were made by the country’s
National Intelligence Service as part of
regular situational reports given to
cabinet members, the inspector general of
police, members of the National Security
Advisory Council and military intelligence.
The CNN has seen an electronic version
of those reports, which contain an
extensive list of terror threats from
several regions across Kenya over an
extended period, but they also specify Al-
Shabaab posed a threat to several targets,
including Westgate Shopping Mall.
The news about the intelligence warnings
come amid revelations that the mall
favored by Westerners and tourists was
long-considered a possible terror target.
The CNN has also learned that the
Westgate mall attackers tortured some of
the hostages.
Military doctors said militants severed
hands, cut off noses and, in some cases,
hanged hostages.
The CNN has seen photographic evidence
of one dead victim with a hand
amputated.
Inquiry begins
Members of Parliament are expected to
begin grilling intelligence bosses,
including the head of the National
Intelligence Service, over the apparent
intelligence failures.
The news of the intelligence warnings
follow the September 21 terror attack at
Westgate that resulted in a four-day
standoff that left at least 67 people dead
and parts of the shopping center
destroyed. Dozens are still unaccounted
for, possibly buried beneath the rubble.
The attackers claimed to be members of
the Somali-based Al-Shabaab.
Al-Shabaab itself made statements
claiming responsibility, including saying
on Twitter that it sent the gunmen in
retaliation for Kenya’s involvement in an
African Union military effort against the
group, which is al Qaeda’s proxy in
Somalia.
Kenyan forces killed five terrorists, and 11
others in custody over possible links to
the attacks, President Uhuru Kenyatta has
said.
But an immense amount of work remains
to learn how Al-Shabaab, a terror group
thought to be badly bruised by recent
losses in its Somalian homeland, was able
to pull off such a well-coordinated and
brazen attack.
Last year, the Kenyan military was part of
a peacekeeping force that defeated Al-
Shabaab forces to liberate the key Somali
port of Kismayo.
Since Kenya launched attacks against Al-
Shabaab in Somalia in 2011, the group
has hurled grenades at Kenyan churches,
bus stops and other public places.
It was the deadliest terror attack in Kenya
since al Qaeda blew up the US Embassy
there in 1998, killing 213 people.