Rescuers run wheeling a stretcher during a rescue operation at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: EPA/Kabir Dhanji
“We were very saddened by the news of the terrorist attack by Islamic extremists of the al-Shabaab group that was carried out against the shopping centre in Nairobi,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Boguslaw Winid declared in a statement on Monday.
Winid described the attack, which has claimed at least 68 lives and seen close to 200 injured, as an act of “inexplicable sectarian violence.
“There can be no condoning of violence motivated by intolerance towards followers of different religions,” he argued.
“We call on spiritual leaders to preach peace and tolerance and to act against terrorism.”
Early on Monday morning, Kenyan and Israeli security forces launched what was intended to be a “final assault” on Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre to neutralise the militants.
A Twitter account (now disabled) linked to the Somalian al-Shabaab group had earlier declared that “the attack at Westgate Mall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders.
“For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it’s time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land.”
Kenyan forces began operations against al-Shabaab in Somalia in October 2011, together with Somalian authorities and Ethiopian, French and US military forces.
President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta lost two members of family, a nephew and his fiancee, in the attack on the mall.
Other victims included French, British, Canadian, Dutch, Indian, Ghanaian, American and Chinese nationals.
The Westgate mall is near the UN headquarters in Nigiri, and is frequented by Kenya's wealthy elite.
It is understood that during the attack, the militants called on Islamic hostages to identify themselves, and these were duly set free.
Those that pretended to follow Islam were allegedly shot on the spot if they failed to identify the mother of the Prophet.
In Monday's statement, Poland's foreign ministry also condemned the attacks against Christians in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and the assault on a Shia funeral by suicide bombers in Bagdad. (nh)
Source: msz.gov.pl