Several Nairobi mall attackers are US, European citizens

The Kenyan Al-Shabaab terrorists who carried out the murderous attack in a Nairobi mall on Sunday apparently included Westerners.

According to news broadcaster CNN, Al-Shabaab has confirmed that nine names listed on a Twitter site were among the militants who killed around 70 people and injured 170 in the upmarket Westgate shopping mall.

The list says three of the attackers are from the United States, two from Somalia, and one each from Canada, Finland, Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has said is looking into the claim that American citizens were involved the attack.

A senior state department official made a similar statement, saying the US is trying to determine whether any of the alleged attackers are American. But he went so far as to add that authorities are becoming more confident American citizens were involved in the merciless attack.

The Kenyan government is now saying that other terror groups could also be involved in the terror attack on the mall apart from al-Shabab, which has claimed responsibility. However, as broadcaster Al-Jazeera noted, the government has not elaborated and it was unclear what other groups they meant.

Meanwhile security forces and intelligence agencies are coming under severe criticism for the way they responded to the attack. According to Kenyan news reports, it took more than an hour for specialised forces to get to the Westgate mall, and police had first said that they were responding to an armed robbery.

Presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu, who has been attending many key briefings, was defensive in an interview with al-Jazeera.

''The way you react to terror attacks is not always uniform. When something like this happens it gives you opportunity to reflect and think what things were we doing wrong'', he said.