Alan Boswell

The capture alive of 11 of the suspected attackers should go a long way toward helping authorities learn their identities. Al Qaida’s affiliate in Somalia, al Shabab, has claimed responsibility for the attack, but rumors have been flying that at least some of the assailants grew up in the United States.

Kenya's shopping mall nightmare apparently is not over, despite Kenyan government claims that its forces were in control. The sounds of gunfire still emanated Tuesday from the Westgate shopping mall where terrorists believed to be members of al Qaida's affiliate in Somalia killed dozens of shoppers.

Kenyan government Twitter accounts claimed early Tuesday that authorities had taken control of all the floors of a Nairobi shopping complex that terrorists had seized Saturday.

Soon after gunmen stormed a Kenyan shopping mall on Saturday, killing dozens in a spray of bullets and grenades, triumphant tweets swept the Internet.

A horrific siege at a popular Nairobi shopping mall stretched into a second day Sunday as Kenyan security forces searched the complex for the gunmen who Saturday stormed the center, shooting wildly, throwing hand grenades and executing shoppers.

Kenya is predominantly Christian and the relationship between that majority and the sizable Muslim minority has been mostly friendly. But that veneer of tolerance was ripped open last week.

On the eve of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s arrival in Nairobi, a man blew himself up Friday apparently while trying to toss a grenade at Kenyan soldiers in a Muslim district of the capital, highlighting the growing threat of violent Islamism in the region even as Somalia’s al Shabab group is losing ground nearby.

A blast that blew the roof off a downtown building and hurled shards of glass and burned clothing into the streets on Monday apparently was the strongest retaliation yet by al Qaida-linked forces in Somalia for Kenya’s military foray into that country.