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'Boxes' of body parts found at Kenya mall

Human remains have been recovered from the rubble of a collapsed section of the Nairobi mall where 67 people were killed in a massacre last month.

Kenyan military personnel at the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya
Charred human remains have been recovered from the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Charred pieces of bodies, enough to fill two boxes, have been recovered from the Kenyan shopping mall that was stormed by terrorists last month.

The remains, along with four AK-47 rifles believed to have been used by the attackers, were found in part of the mall that collapsed during the siege in Nairobi on September 21.

A security official said it was possible the remains are of the attackers but it would not be definitively known until tests were carried out.

One of the four gunmen has been identified by a real name for the first time: Abdi Dhuhulow, a Norwegian-Somali according to the security official.

Norwegian tax records show a Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow was born in 1990 and was registered at an address in Larvik, southern Norway, as late as 2009.

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One man living in another Scandinavian country, who only gave his first name, Yussuf, told AP he believes he had met the gunman at a gathering of Somali immigrants in Oslo, Norway's capital, in 2008.

Yussuf recalled the man's name as Abdi and said he was associated with "pretty radical" circles in Norway.

"He was mad. He didn't feel at home in Norway."

Yussuf said he had not had any contact with the man since then but added that several people he knew thought they had recognised him in the closed-circuit TV footage of the mall attack.

Newly released security video shows that gunmen entered the mall and casually opened fire on shoppers, the beginning of a four-day siege that left 67 dead.

The Somali Islamic militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to go after the group.


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