Kenyan Mall Attack Update: 3 Who Were Suspects Are Released

NPR | By Mark Memmott

Published September 27, 2013 at 12:10 PM EDT

Friends and relatives of Mbugua Mwangi and his fiancee Rosemary Wahito attended their funeral service Friday in Nairobi, Kenya. Mwangi, who was Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's nephew, and Wahito died in the Westgate Mall attack.

Here are some of the latest developments in the aftermath of last weekend's attack by terrorists on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya:

-- Suspects. Kenyan police are now holding eight people, Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters Friday. "Three others were interrogated and released," he said, according to Reuters.

-- Deaths. The "official total death toll from the siege stands at 72," Voice of America says. That figure includes five dead attackers.

-- Missing. As investigators continued to search the partially collapsed mall, the Kenyan Red Cross said Friday that 59 people remain missing, VoA adds.

-- Collapse. "A top-ranking government official tells The Associated Press that Kenya's military caused the massive collapse of three floors during the terrorist siege on Nairobi's Westgate Mall. ... The official also confirmed that Kenyan troops fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the mall, but would not say what was used to cause the collapse." (Via CBS News)

-- Planning. "Investigators looking into the Kenya mall attack have determined the attackers or their associates rented and operated a small store in the mall a year before the attack, according to a Kenyan intelligence official involved in the investigation," CNN says. "This is an indication that the planning for the attack began more than a year ago."

-- Terrorists' car reportedly found. "A vehicle believed to have been used by the terrorists ... has been recovered by investigators," Sky News says. "Kenyan police are trying to trace details of the ownership of the car, which was found outside the bullet-scarred and scorched shopping center."

Al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group active in neighboring Somalia, has taken credit for the attack. It has vowed to strike again unless Kenya withdraws troops it has in Somalia.