Kenyan security forces and al-Qaeda-linked Islamists were in a standoff Sunday morning after gunmen killed 59 people – including a Canadian diplomat and the Kenyan president's nephew – and injured at least 175 others in an attack at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi. About 30 hostages were still being held.
"We will punish the masterminds (of the attack) swiftly, and indeed very painfully," Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta told reporters Sunday afternoon.
An Islamist group from Somalia, al Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the assault at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Reuters reported. The attackers were armed with AK-47 rifles and wore ammunition belts, according to witnesses.
The gunmen opened fire at shoppers while a radio station was hosting a children's cooking competition at the mall and the winners were about to receive prizes, the newswire said.
State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said Sunday that authorities believe 10 to 15 gunmen were involved in the mall attack.
Among the dead are close family members of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the wife of a U.S. diplomat working for the U.S. Agency for International Development was killed, three British citizens, two French citizens and two Canadians, including a 29-year-old diplomat. Some children have also died.
Several American citizens have been wounded, but no American died, according to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice, and we have offered our full support to the Kenyan Government to do so," Kerry said in a statement.