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Kenya's president says mall siege over

Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta has announced that the siege of Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall has ended, calling for three days of national mourning for the victims of the four-day national ordeal.

Kenyatta said on Tuesday that 67 people had been killed in the attacks by al-Qaeda linked gunmen, and added five members of the armed group had been killed by gunfire and another 11 suspects are currently being held in custody.

He did not, however, make any mention of whether any remaining hostages had been released by the attackers.

Kenya has "shamed and defeated our attackers" but the "losses are immense", he said in a televised address to the nation.

Sixy-one civilians and six members of the security forces had died in the four-day siege which Somali based armed group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for.

"Al-Shabab are looking for relevance on an international scale - especially after a change of leadership - and is looking to send the message that they are still a force to be reckoned with," Al Jazeera's Mohamed Adow reported from Nairobi.

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At least 59 people have been killed and another 175 others wounded at an upscale mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi where soldiers have surrounded an estimated 10 to 15 al-Shabab attackers who are holding an unknown number of civilians hostage. Multiple barrages of gunfire erupted on Sunday from inside the building, nearly 24 hours after the armed men stormed the Westgate shopping centre using grenades and assault rifles. "The priority is to save as many lives as possible," Joseph Lenku, Kenya's interior cabinet secretary said, reassuring the families of the hostages in the complex.  Kenyan forces have already rescued about 1,000 people, he said. It is not known how many civilians remain trapped inside the shopping complex - either as hostages or hiding from the attackers. Al-Shabab told Al Jazeera it carried out Saturday's deadly attack in which they specifically targeted non-Muslims. Kenyans and foreigners were among those confirmed dead, including French, Britons, Canadians and Chinese.

A gun battle inside a shopping centre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has left at least 22 people dead and more than 50 injured, according to the Kenyan Red Cross.

The Kenyan interior ministry said 11 people had been killed in the attack, and 25 were injured.

Kenyan troops and elite units have joined police fighting gunmen in Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre, one of the city's most exclusive.

One witness who spoke to Al Jazeera from inside the mall said the centre was busy with Saturday afternoon shoppers when gunfire erupted in what was initially believed to be an armed robbery.

Syria's War: UN report confirms sarin 'war crime' | UN investigators found "clear and convincing evidence'' that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people. 

As expected, the report, released on Monday, did not say who launched the attack in rebel-held Damascus suburbs.

It said: "The environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used ... in the Ghouta area of Damascus" on August 21.

"The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic ... against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the report said.