US marines intervene in Dusit hotel terror attack on Riverside Drive

US marines intervene in Dusit terror attack

Mark Mwithaga

January 15, 2019 8:07 PM

US soldiers respond to attack

Parking lot with vehicles on fire at the Dusit D2 hotel on 14 Riverside Drive, Westlands, Nairobi (Twitter)

United States marines and other foreign missions on Tuesday responded to the attack on Dusit hotel on 14 Riverside Drive.

Vehicles that ferried specialised forces from the US embassy Pulse Live Kenya

The security personnel from the US embassy were seen making their way into the building that houses Dusit Hotel and various offices.

The afternoon attack was reported to be instigated by at least four attackers who were said to have arrived at the junction linking Chiromo Lane with Riverside Drive and remained parked for thirty minutes before the incident.

The perpetrators then made their way into the parking lot after an explosion followed after.

The explosion which was believed to have been a suicide bomber, went off at 3:50 pm at the Secret Garden Hotel.

EL Adde anniversary

The terror attack occurred exactly three years after Al-Shabab fighters overrun a Kenyan army base in the town of El Adde in Somalia killing dozens of soldiers.

Members of the Kenya Defence Forces attend prayers as they pay their respects to the Kenyan soldiers serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), who were killed in El Adde during an attack, at a memorial mass at the Moi Barracks in Eldoret, January 27, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Reuters

January 15 was set by the military as the date to honour the soldiers who paid a huge price while defending the country in the war against Al Shabaab insurgents.

The number of soldiers that lost their lives during the incident is yet to be revealed amid the different reports that put the tally at over 100.

Mark Mwithaga