BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta to express support for the Kenyan people as the stand-off continues between Kenyan security forces and Islamist terrorists who seized the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi on Saturday, killing at least sixty people.

Netanyahu told Kenyatta, “Israel empathises with the Kenyan people’s pain… and with your own personal loss due to the terror attack. We value your nation’s determined struggle against terrorism.” Indeed, Israel and Kenya have previous shared experience of terrorist activity, as in 2002, terrorists blew up an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and attempted to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane as it left the country. Last month, it is thought that Israeli Mossad agents helped Kenyan officials investigate whether a fire at Kenya’s international airport was in fact a terror attack.

Kenyan security forces yesterday began an operation to bring the siege at Westgate to an end, although it remained unclear how many terrorists remain in the shopping centre and exactly how many civilian casualties had amassed, although Defence Minister Phillip Hammond said that he believed six Britons had died in the attack.

Media reports continue to speculate that Israeli security forces were heavily involved in the Kenyan security operation. The Times says that both Israeli and UK special forces are in the area. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports this morning that Israeli officials are taking the leading role in advising the Kenyan authorities on the operation and speculates that an Israeli elite counter-terrorism unit has assisted in the operation. The Independent also says that Israeli forces have taken part in the military assault. However, the Guardian emphasises that there has been a public silence from Israeli officials on the possible involvement of Israeli personnel. An Israeli army spokeswoman is quoted simply saying “We don’t comment on foreign reports.”