BBC News with David Austin
Security officials in Kenya say government troops are continuing to search for suspected Islamist gunmen who carried out a deadly attack on the up-market Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi. Sounds of gunfire and explosions were heard deep into the night from inside the four-story building. And officials say the group has been pinned down in one part of the complex. This man was in his office in the shopping center when the attack started.
“Suddenly we heard three, four blasts again and then a lot of gunshots and that’s when we realize that we’ve probably having a, perhaps a bank rubbery but then I saw a whole crowd of people ran out from the exit area into the parking lot and they were followed by two gunmen dressed in black with banner on their head showing automatic weapons and they shooting indiscriminately. And we saw people being shot under a tent where the children were having a cookery competition. And we suddenly realized that we were under attack.”
The Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta says 39 people were killed in the attack including some members of his family. The BBC’s Ann Soya in Nairobi has been following events and is at the scene.
Well what we know as of now is that we heard some gunfire there and some blasts we suspected may have been grenades that were been blasted there. What we know now is that they’re expecting statement from the president but the attackers are still in that building. The military officers as well as the police have still surrounded the whole building. Inside that building the police did say that they have combed, they’re combing the different rooms in that building.
In Iraq, two bomb blasts have killed at least 65 people attending a funeral in the mainly Shiah Sadr City district of the capital Baghdad. Hugh Morgan reports.
Officials at the Iraqi Interior Ministry say at least 56 people were killed and more than 120 others injured by a car bomb in the predominately Shiah Sadr City east of the capital Baghdad. Minutes later a second explosion in another part of Sadr City targeted a funeral. The attacker managed to get inside a tent full of mourners before detonating his suicide vest. This attack was followed within seconds by another bomb explosion in a car parked nearby. Earlier on Saturday a Shiah religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr denounced those who targeted Sunnis and Shias in Iraq and called for national unity.
The authorities in France say more than a ton of cocaine has been seized on board an Air France plane flying from Venezuela. French officials say the drugs were meant to sell in France and would have been worth about 200 million euros. Six people have been arrested.
World News from the BBC
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has issued a statement warning president Hassan Rouhani to be careful about recent overtures by the United States. The statement comes just a day ahead of president Rouhani’s visit to New York for the annual meeting of the UN’s General Assembly. Catharine Nagy reports
In its statement the Revolutionary Guard dominated by hardliners says it will support any move by the government that is in line with the wishes of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The statement is an indication of the kind of pressures: they are relatively moderate president Rouhani’s under from hardliners at home who will be watching his visit to the US very carefully.
The international chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW said it’s now received what it calls the expected disclosure by the Syrian government of its chemical arsenal. In a deal hammered out between the US and Russia, the Assad government had faced a deadline later today to make a full disclosure of its chemical weapons. The OPCW said its technical secretariat was now analyzing the information.
Voters in Germany go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament and decide if the Chancellor Angela Merkel will serve a third term in office. In her final election rally, Mrs. Merkel told her Christian Democrats supporters that the race would be a close one. Her main rival Peer Steinbrueck of the opposition Social Democrats described the current government as backward looking.
A UN envoy has said general elections in Guinea will be postponed by four days from Tuesday to next Saturday. Said Djinnit was speaking after broke an agreement between the government and the opposition. Mediators and political parties have been discussing opposition concerns about the preparations for the poll which have been marked by violent protests. Guinea held its first democratic elections in 2010 after decades of dictatorships.
Those are the latest stories from BBC News