At least 14 dead in Kenyan hotel attack

Kenyan security forces have killed the gunmen who carried out a deadly attack Tuesday in which 14 people died, including one American, at a hotel complex in Nairobi, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Wednesday. “All the terrorists have been eliminated,” Kenyatta said in a televised address. Authorities evacuated more than 700 people during the attack, which began mid-afternoon. Four armed militants set off car bombs outside a bank and stormed the hotel, followed by a suicide bombing in the lobby, national Police Chief Joseph Boinnet said. The Islamic terror group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the violence.

Early Wednesday, witnesses reported hearing an explosion and gunfire at the site, but the Interior Ministry tweeted that security forces were concluding the “mopping up process” and “no further threat to public exists.” It’s unclear how many people sustained injuries. I-DEV International in San Francisco said its co-founder and managing director, Jason Spindler, died during the attack, and the U.S. State Department confirmed there was one American casualty. Nic Hailey, the U.K. high commissioner in Kenya, said one British national also died.

Al-Shabaab said via its Shahada news agency that the gunmen killed 47 people. The extremist group staged a similar attack in 2013 on the nearby Westgate Mall that killed 67 people.