Global Jihad updates from Nairobi and Peshawar

1)NAIROBI: Heavy and rapid bursts of gunfire were heard coming from inside Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall at dawn on Monday, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

A Kenyan security source confirmed that an assault against al-Qaida-linked Somali gunmen inside the complex was underway.

The AFP correspondent said he heard about 15 minutes of fierce gunfire which then subsided. An AFP photographer at the scene said troops posted around the mall ducked for cover.

2) PESHAWAR: In the deadliest ever attack on Pakistan’s minority Christians, at least 78 people were killed and more than 130 injured when two suicide bombers discharged their explosives outside the 19th century colonial-era All Saints Church in the country’s northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday.

The bombings came as worshippers finished Sunday morning service at the historic church in Peshawar’s old and congested Kohati Gate area. Most of the poor worshippers had gathered at the church’s lawn for free food when the bombers struck. Eyewitnesses said the blasts were preceded by gunfire at the entrance gate.

“As soon as the prayers finished and people greeted each other in the lawn, two explosions, the second one more powerful than the first, took place. The blast scattered bloodied body parts, pieces of flesh and shrapnel all around,” said injured Asher Masih from hospital bed at Lady Reading Hospital. “Around 500 people were in the church when the bombs exploded,” he said.

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