Kenyan security forces are locked in a fierce, final battle with Somali Islamist gunmen inside an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall as huge explosions and a barrage of heavy gunfire echo out of the complex.
A thick cloud of black smoke billowed out from the Westgate mall on Monday as Kenyan officials said the 50-hour-long siege - which has seen the gunmen massacre at least 69 people and take dozens more hostage - was close to being resolved.
"We think the operation will come to an end soon," Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters camped outside the vast part Israeli-owned complex, which was popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates.
"We are in control of all the floors, the terrorists are running and hiding in some stores... there is no room for escape," he said, adding that some hostages had been freed, but without giving specific numbers. Two gunmen were also killed in the fighting.
The Kenyan Red Cross said at least 63 people were recorded missing, thought to include hostages as well as those possibly killed or still hiding. Around 200 people were wounded, officials said.
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Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab insurgents have claimed responsibility for the attack, which began at midday on Saturday, when the gunmen marched into the complex, firing grenades and automatic weapons and sending panicked shoppers fleeing.
Kenyan army chief Julius Karangi said the gunmen had different nationalities. Several foreign fighters, including Somalis with dual nationalities, are members of the al-Shabaab force.
"They are from different countries. We have sufficient intelligence this is global terrorism," Karangi said.
Lenku denied that any of the insurgents were women.
"There are no women, all the terrorists are men. Some of them had dressed like women," he said.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage warned that the hostages would "bear the brunt of any force directed against the mujahedeen" - signalling that hostages were being used as human shields.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed the attackers will "not get away with their despicable and beastly acts."
"We will punish the masterminds swiftly, and indeed very painfully," he declared in a televised speech to the nation on Sunday, revealing that a family member - a nephew and his fiancee - were among the dead.
A Kenyan security source and a Western intelligence official said Israeli forces were also involved in the operation, along with British and US agents.
The al-Shabaab rebels said the carnage was in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.
