Terror group: We targeted foreigners, tried to free Muslims in mall massacre

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Al-Shabab, the armed Somali Islamic extremist group that attacked a shopping mall in Kenya's capital, said yesterday that foreigners were a "legitimate target" and confirmed witness accounts that gunmen tried to let Muslims go free while killing or taking the others captive.

In an email exchange with the AP in Johannesburg, al-Shabab said, "The Mujahideen carried out a meticulous vetting process at the mall and have taken every possible precaution to separate the Muslims from the Kuffar [disbelievers] before carrying out their attack."

According to published accounts, witnesses said the gunmen rounded up people, asked questions about Islam that a Muslim would know, and told the Muslims to leave the mall.

But some of those killed were members of the faith. One man, Louis Bawa, whose wife Zahira and daughter Jennah were killed, told a London newspaper, The Telegraph, that al-Shabab was "using religion as an excuse to kill people."

"Zahira and Jennah were Muslims, but these animals just shot them the same as all of the others," Bawa said.

The death toll was 67 and was likely to climb with uncounted bodies remaining in the rubble of the Westgate Mall.

At least 18 of those killed were foreigners, including citizens of at least 11 countries, when the militants entered the mall on Saturday, slaughtering men, women and children with assault rifles and grenades and taking people hostage.

American FBI agents in Nairobi, working near bodies crushed by rubble, began fingerprint, DNA and ballistic analysis yesterday to help determine the identities and nationalities of victims and gunmen.

A gaping hole in the mall's roof was caused by Kenyan soldiers who fired rocket-propelled grenades inside, knocking out a support column, a government official said.

The official, who insisted he not be identified because he was sharing security information, said the soldiers fired to distract a terrorist sniper so hostages could be evacuated.

Video of the roof collapse showed massive carnage. The collapse came Monday, shortly after four large explosions rang out, followed by billows of black smoke. A government minister said the terrorists had set mattresses on fire, causing the roof to collapse, but the video showed such massive destruction that that seemed unlikely to be the full story.

Al-Shabab had threatened retaliation against Kenya for sending its troops into Somalia against al-Shabab, and many of those killed in an attack that horrified the world were Kenyans.