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Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 17 Jan 2019
Nairobi: The toll in the suspected terrorist attack incident in a luxury hotel compound in Nairobi city has touched 21, media reports said on Thursday.
Hundreds of people escaped the spot after gunmen attacked the DusitD2 hotel and business complex on Tuesday.
Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
The 19-hour-long operation came to an end on Wednesday.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said the siege ended with five jihadist attackers "eliminated", reported BBC.
11) Capitalizing on Palestine, Shabaab declares #Nairobi attack—as per AQ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s directive to target Western & "Zionist" interests—to be a “response to... president Donald Trump & his declaration of [Jerusalem] as the capital of Israel” https://t.co/K4FiiJnv5r
— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) January 16, 2019
DusitD2 hotel is a five-star hotel. It has 101 rooms.
Kenya has witnessed several terrorist attacks in recent times.
Who are al -Shabaab?
Al-Shabaab is a jihadist fundamentalist group based in East Africa.
In 2012, it pledged allegiance to the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda. They are opposed to the Somali government. However, they have carried out attacks throughout East Africa.
Major Attacks:
In 2013, al-Shabab gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi and targeted shoppers and at the end of the 80-hour-long siege 67 people lost their lives.
In 2015, gunmen stormed the Garissa University College in Garissa, Kenya, killing 148 people. The militant group and Al-Qaeda offshoot, Al-Shabaab, which the gunmen claimed to be from, took responsibility for the attack.