Al-Qaeda Hotel Attack Kills 21, Shaking Kenya Economy Pillar

  • All assailants in Tuesday attack in capital killed: president
  • Somalia’s al-Shabaab extremists took responsibility for raid

People flee 14 Riverside Drive in Nairobi on Jan. 15.

Photographer: Fredrik Lerneryd/Bloomberg
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Kenyan forces ended an Islamist militant siege at a hotel and office complex in the capital that left at least 21 people dead and highlighted the threat still posed by al-Qaeda-linked fighters to East Africa’s largest economy.

Using hand grenades, automatic rifles and a suicide-bomber, the militants stormed 14 Riverside in Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon, a venue popular with business travelers and Kenya’s elites and home to offices of companies including Pernod Ricard SA and Dow Chemical East Africa Ltd. That precipitated an 18-hour siege around the DusitD2 hotel, which President Uhuru Kenyatta said ended about 9 a.m. Wednesday with the attackers dead.