![]() Mark, who served for 18 years in the British army, much of it in the SAS, took charge. That was when a bloodied hand waved from the rooftop and they took the fateful decision to climb the external fire escape that led into the Java House coffee shop. Shots could be heard coming from the rooftop car park. As panicked shoppers and mall staff ran the gauntlet, Mark and John kept watch on the top of the building. They approached the terrified people and organised them into pairs to make the dash to the comparative safety of the main road, where a crowd of survivors and onlookers was already beginning to gather. They walked into the basement along the exit ramp from the underground car park and made it most of the way to the entrance stairwell before gunfire forced them to retreat.Ĭoming back out the way they had gone in, they took cover in the cargo area when Mark noticed a crowd of more than 100 people cowering behind an armoured cash-delivery truck. Bodies were still strewn across the balcony of a ground-floor cafe and gunshots could be heard echoing inside the mall. ![]() What followed – reconstructed with witness testimony, photographs, video footage and interviews with friends of one of the security men – gives the clearest account yet of official failures, missed opportunities and individual bravery in what is one of the worst-disclosed terrorist attacks on record.Īrriving in the Kenyan capital’s shopping and nightlife district of Westlands, Mark and John (not their real names) found that there was no police cordon in place. They told them to stay where they were and the decision was taken to attempt a rescue. They phoned them, to find they were hiding in Westgate’s second-floor sushi restaurant, Onami. Within 10 minutes they had contacted all the firm’s staff and ascertained that two were inside the mall. The security consultants, one an ex-SAS officer and the other a former Irish Ranger, immediately began work on the assumption that it was a terrorist attack. Gunshots had been heard at Nairobi’s plushest shopping mall, Westgate, and it was suspected that a robbery was in progress. Under fire, they organised the rescue of terrified shoppersĪ little after half-past midday on a sunny Saturday a disturbing call came through to Mark and John at the Nairobi offices of the oil company for which they work. He walked out of the regiment’s Hereford base and, started a new career on Instagram where he disclosing details about his mission using the pseudonym Chris Craighead ( far, he has uploaded photos of his Special Operations Forces career, including the picture of him masked and studying last-minute plans before entering the besieged Kenyan hotel.Two security consultants raced to the Westgate mall when al-Shabaab gunmen went on the rampage. He quit the elite regiment after he was shunned by colleagues, according to The Mail on Sunday.Īccording to that, he was so disappointed by his treatment from his fellow SAS operators that he has retired from the SAS. Only two years after he stormed a besieged Kenyan hotel, and a year after he received a bravery medal, a heroic SAS operator left the British Special Air Service. There’s no doubt his actions saved lives.” Retirement and social media career After a stand-off stretched into the night the remaining duo was killed, ending the siege, the Sun reported. As well as hunting down the gunmen, the SAS operator was pictured saving innocents fleeing the terror.Ī source said at the time: “The SAS don’t miss. The SAS operator shot dead a second gunman before Kenyan security forces cornered the other two in the sprawling complex. It turned the tide, there was a surge of confidence through the mission.” ‘The SAS don’t miss’ Within minutes he’d dropped the first terrorist. No hesitation, no flinching, no thought for his own safety, straight into the eye of the storm. ![]() He got on the blower to the UK High Commissioner who gave the go-ahead and he went straight in. “People were dying, and they knew they had a man in their midst who could turn the tide. ![]() Navy SEALs as they waited for the green light to go in. But there was a critical pause among the U.S. They were being mentored by SEALs and they had jurisdiction. The insider added: “When it all kicked off he was working with the Kenyan Armed Forces. A long-serving member of the SAS is seen dragging a victim from the scene of the shooting (Photo: EPA) Within minutes of being cleared to pounce he shot dead the first terrorist from behind a wall. As the body count rose a US Navy SEAL team sought out the SAS operator.
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