NAIROBI, Kenya — The bloody standoff at a Kenyan shopping mall entered its fourth, confused day on Tuesday as government forces said they were picking off the militants who stormed the upscale shopping center, while a group claiming to be connected to the attackers said militants inside the mall were still resisting the government assault.
The Somalia-based Shabab militant group, which has taken responsibility for the attack, said in a message on a Twitter account linked with it that some hostages were still alive and that its fighters remained at large in the complex. The fighters, the Shabab said, were “still holding their ground.”
The rattle of automatic weapons fire continued intermittently throughout Tuesday morning and black smoke continued to pour out of the mall, seeming to contradict accounts from Kenyan officials late Monday that the crisis was nearing an end.