Associated Press A plume of black smoke billows over the Westgate Mall, following large explosions and heavy gunfire, in Nairobi on Monday.
NAIROBI—Government security forces on Monday pushed into a Nairobi shopping mall as it spewed black smoke, in an operation to free the remaining hostages from a siege that has stretched into its third day.
Gunfire and large explosions punctuated the rescue mission, sending hundreds of bystanders scurrying away from the Westgate Mall and turning a bustling suburb of East Africa's commercial capital into a conflict zone. The smoke came from a fire set by the militants in a supermarket in an attempt to prevent the security forces from advancing, said Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku. He said it didn't foil the assault and that there were now only a few civilians left in the mall, although he declined to give a number.
"Almost all of them have been evacuated," Mr. Ole Lenku told reporters outside the mall. "There will be very, very minimal [numbers of civilians], if any, in the building." He added that Kenyan forces now were in control of all floors of the four-story building, but militants could be seen "running and hiding."
He said he could confirm 62 people had been killed since attackers armed with assault rifles and grenades stormed the shopping center at lunchtime Saturday in an attack claimed by the Somali al-Shabaab militant Islamist group. The Red Cross had previously said at least 69 were dead. Mr. Ole Lenku said the Red Cross figure might be inflated.
Before Monday's government operation, at least 47 people were believed to be still trapped inside, based on Red Cross missing persons reports.
Kenyan police have been promising an assault on the shopping center for days, but also said they were moving forward slowly in order to protect the civilians hiding inside and possibly being held at gunpoint by the attackers. Earlier Monday, police widened the security cordon around the mall, closing off additional streets to cars. Security forces could also be seen in the late morning massing near the main entrance of the mall. Helicopters circled overhead.
Kenyan police seek to clear terrorists from an upscale mall after an attack that killed more than 60 people, with as many as 40 more still missing and perhaps held hostage. The WSJ's Heidi Vogt has the details.
Photos
European Pressphoto Agency
Occasional gunshots sounded throughout the morning and then, at about 1:30 p.m., a volley of gunfire went off and two large explosions were heard. Smoke then started streaming from one side of the building. More gunshots could be heard two hours later, followed by what appeared to be return fire.
A sense of siege has permeated the city—other major malls have been closed and the government has increased security at the airport and seaport.
Mr. Ole Lenku declined to give details on the operation, but did say two of the approximately 10-15 attackers inside were killed in Monday's maneuver. He also said reports of women being among the assailants were incorrect. He said some of the militants had disguised themselves as women, but all were men. The Kenyan government has had access to the mall's closed-circuit television feed since Sunday, so has been able to monitor some of their movements. He also said 10 Kenyan security forces had been wounded and were receiving treatment.
Maj. Gen. Julius Karanja, the chief of general staff for the Kenyan military, said the attackers came from a number of countries, although he declined to provide details.
"We have an idea who these people are, and they are clearly a multinational collection from all over the world," Gen. Karanja said.
The attack began Saturday, with the assailants storming at least three entrances to the mall simultaneously. Gunfire ripped through open-air cafes at the main entrance, while a grenade exploded in the rooftop parking lot and another group of shooters opened fire in the basement garage. Kenyan officials said more than 1,000 people initially trapped inside the mall managed to escape. More than 175 people were injured in the assault.
"Their mission was to kill, not to steal," said Edwin Omoding, a 26-year-old stocker for the Nakumatt supermarket inside the mall. He said he saw about 20 attackers, including three women.
"They were questioning people, and they said, 'If you are Muslim you are on the safer side, but if you are Hindu or Christian you will be killed'," Mr. Omoding said.
He said he and four others hid next to a large walk-in refrigerator, while other people hid in the refrigerator itself. At one point the attackers shot everyone inside the refrigerator, without noticing his group. Mr. Omoding said a bullet grazed his chest but he kept quiet and remained unseen, and was rescued at 9 p.m. Saturday.
Among the dead were four Britons, two Canadians including a diplomat, two French women and a prominent Ghanaian poet, their governments said. The U.K. government, which said the Britons' next of kin had been informed, added that the number of British fatalities could rise. Local media reported that a Kenyan radio presenter was killed on the roof, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said his nephew and nephew's fiancée died in the attack.
When the shooting started, some in the mall ran in one direction only to find themselves facing another flank of shooters. "We tried to escape through the main gate, but the attackers were also coming through that gate. So we turned and tried to go back to the basement," said Peter Ouma, a 25-year-old construction worker.
Mr. Ouma, who was in the basement when attackers entered, said they were dressed in black with their faces masked "like ninjas." He said there was one woman in that group.
"They were at all the exits; even if you wanted to escape you couldn't," Mr. Ouma said. He first hid with about 10 others under a stairwell, then managed to slide underneath a car in the parking garage and stayed there until he was rescued by soldiers Sunday morning.
The deadliest attack to hit Kenya since the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing started around 12:30 p.m. local time Saturday.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta offered condolences to those affected by the attack at Nairobi's Westgate Mall. Elsewhere, Kenyans held prayer vigils and queued up to donate blood. Photo: AP
Most of the mall's shops are on three main levels, with a few more in the basement and a movie theater that extends up onto a higher level. When news of an attack there first filtered out to the city through phone calls and text messages, initial assumptions were that it was a robbery, a common occurrence in a crime-ridden city where going into shopping centers requires handbag searches and a once-over with a metal detector.
But inside the mall, the scene was bloody. A waitress at the popular ArtCaffe restaurant said men entered the dining area and just started shooting the patrons.
Over the course of the day, Kenyan police and soldiers slowly pushed in, ushering out people who were hiding in restrooms, banks' safe rooms or the depths of restaurant kitchens.
Security forces sought to surround the attackers without knowing how many there were, where they were holed up or whether they had hostages.
President Kenyatta called the assault an "evil and cowardly act of terrorism" and vowed to continue to fight against the Somali militants. "I want to be very clear and categorical: We shall not relent on the war on terror. We will continue that fight, and we urge all people of goodwill throughout the world to join us and to ensure that we uproot this evil," he said.
—Idil Abshir, Peter Wonacott, Nicholas Bariyo and Cassell Bryan-Low contributed to this article. Write to Heidi Vogt at heidi.vogt@wsj.com
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