End of Al-Shabaab Attack on Hotel in Kenya; Death Toll Reaches 21

The Kenyan government announced on Wednesday that all attackers affiliated with Al-Shabaab who had assaulted a luxury hotel in Nairobi were killed during the security forces' operation. At least 21 people were killed in the assault by the Islamist militants on this hotel in the Kenyan capital. According to Reuters, however, the Kenyan Red Cross has reported that 50 people were missing from the hotel complex, and their status was unknown by Wednesday afternoon. The report suggests that the death toll from the Islamist militants' attack on this luxury hotel in Nairobi may rise. President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the end of the 20-hour security operation to reclaim the hotel from the Islamist militants during a television program. Meanwhile, images of the attackers' bodies have been circulated on social media. The attack on this luxury hotel occurred in an area of Nairobi where Al-Shabaab had previously killed 67 people in the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack. Kenyatta stated, 'The security operation is over, and all the attackers have been neutralized.' However, the Kenyan president did not mention the number of attackers involved in the hotel assault. The CCTV network released images of five attackers at the hotel, with one of them reportedly detonating himself in front of a restaurant. Al-Shabaab issued a two-page statement claiming that the operation was in response to the U.S. President's decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Joseph Boinett, the Kenyan police chief, stated that 16 Kenyans, one American citizen, and one British citizen were killed in the attack. He added that three other victims were citizens of African countries whose identities have not yet been determined. Al-Shabaab emerged in 2006 in war-torn Somalia, seeking to overthrow the Somali government and establish Sharia law in the country. The group's extremist actions over the past decade have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Somali citizens and hundreds of civilians in other East African countries.