Kenyan security find an explosive after deadly hotel attack

AP  |  Nairobi 

Kenyan experts on Thursday found and safely detonated an explosive left over from the deadly extremist attack on a luxury hotel complex, and the Red Cross said no one appeared to be missing after it had checked nearly 100 reported cases.

The said its quick reaction to Tuesday's assault on the dusitD2 complex reflected improvements in its ability to respond to such brazen assaults on civilian targets. It was "much better handled" in comparison to the 2013 attack on the nearby Westgate Mall, said Joseph Mucheru, the information

Police took hours to respond to that attack and official information was scarce or conflicting, leading to reforms.

"The speed, the response and the conclusion of this matter was swift," the told journalists.

Al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked extremist group that carried out the 2013 attack that killed 67 people, also claimed responsibility for the hotel assault this week that took the lives of 20 civilians, one and five attackers.

In contrast to the government's fumbling response to the Westgate attack, the better-coordinated operation at the dusitD2 hotel was under the "central command" of the of the paramilitary wing of the known as the General Service Unit, according to The Standard, a Kenyan newspaper.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, January 18 2019. 00:50 IST