♪ . >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour and i'm in doha and the top stories on al jazeera. kenya's government says it's the beginning of the end as the military moves to end the siege at the west gate mall. ♪ and merkel appears to be just short of an absolute majority in the german election. laid to rest, the 81 victims of sunday's suicide bombing in

pakistan. and at least 25 people are killed because of typhoon usagi in southern china. ♪ kenya forces have begun the operation to free hostages being held by al shabaab fighters in the west gate mall. sustained gunfire has been heard in the past few hours and the army is trying to bring about a quick end to the standoff and so far 68 people are known to have died and let's go to kathryn who is in the kenya capitol for us and the military keen to end this today. what has been going on? >> yes, you are right, the military is very keen to end this today. there has been a lot of activity throughout the morning. the gunshots are silent and we

have not heard anything for the past hour or so but earlier on we heard an explosion of sorts as well. we have seen military enforcement that has been brought in. we have seen a fire truck coming in and earlier we also saw a military ambulance that was taking because a soldier was injured away from here. this all shows this operation is really intensifying the military's spokesman wants this to end as soon as possible, possibly by the end of today. but we will have to wait and see that. >> reporter: of course their major concern is the hostages. do they know exactly where the hostages are and what condition they are in? >> that is the major concern. we can only imagine the condition that the hostages are

in. they have been locked there for the past few days or so. they are traumatized and very scared. you can imagine. but the military again, the security forces are not divulging much of that and it's difficult to verify the numbers and figures that have been going around regarding how many hostages are held but besides the hostages there are other people who are being told that are hiding in various spots of the unsecured parts of the mall and we were told yesterday by the forces that they have secured the second floor and possibly the first floor but the ground floor and the basement is secure and people are still hiding there and there are people still there hiding, the hostages. >> reporter: thanks for that

and apologies for problems with the sound quality there. let's look at how we got to this point and peter reports. >> reporter: from the moment the gunman launched the raid on the west gate mall shocking images of the attack are filtered out and this footage is emerged of the shoppers in the super market trying to find cover among the aisles. panicked families called out to one another as shots echoed through the halls. [gunfire] they dashed for the exit as gunfire grew louder and more frequent. elsewhere a mother and her children lie on the floor pretending to be dead and unsure if the man on the other side of the screen wants to kill them or rescue them. eventually he convinces them he is a police officer and guides them to safety. in another part of the mall police move from shop to shop

searching for others in hiding, constantly watching for attackers and guide people out and making sure that none are fighters trying to escape and on day two of the crisis with at least 68 dead the president stood with the former prime minister and told the nation that justice will be done. >> they shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts, like the cowardly perpetrators now cornered in the building. we will punish the master minds swiftly and indeed very painfully. >> reporter: soon after the appearance activity at the mall increased. military helicopters circled low to the building and reenforcements moved into place and part of what the kenya military described as a major operation. >> most of the hostages have been rescued and taken to safety and they have taken control of most parts of the building.

>> reporter: the group al shabaab said it carried out the attack in what was justice of part of southern somalia. >> negotiations and surrender and there is an objection in the first place. >> reporter: outside the security court and surrounding the mall a desperate man confronts the police, his wife and child are still inside and he tries to breakthrough to go and find them before the police drag him back. it may still be some time before this crisis can finally be declared as over. even when the kenya military has caught all of the attackers and freed all survivors it will take time for them to go through the building and thoroughly search

it and finally declare it to be at the end and kenya will have hard questions about the preparations for an attack and al shabaab is long to expect and peter from nairobi. >> reporter: war crimes trial of russo has been adjourned because of this and they are returning home to deal with the siege and he is defending himself from post election violence in 2008 that killed more than a thousand people. relatives and friends of the 81 people killed in a suicide attack in pakistan have begun burying the dead and they detonated the explosives outside of a church on sunday. over 100 people were injured. hundreds of pakistan christians later marched in process and we have more on the protests. >> reporter: in pakistan there

is considerable anger at the attack on a christian church in the city here and behind me you can see the protesters and they want justice and say the government was unable to give them the security that was required. however, the attack comes at the time when the government was to initiate a peace dialog, the peace dialog may be jeopardized because of the dead there. the community comprises about 4% of the country's total population. and today you will find the christians persisting on the streets of all major cities in pakistan. >> reporter: the chancer led her party to a historic third term in national elections and merkel looks ats the take over from margaret thatc, this --

thatcher and the vote was the best in 23 years and the opposition democrats took over 25%, merkel's allies the free democrats have terrible nights and won 5% which is the threshold they needed to be represented in the next parliament and the greens party have more cause for celebration and took more than 8% of the vote each. and we have more from berlin. >> joy at seeing the woman they call angie lead to victory and third term as chancellor and she had the christian democratic union for the best and the management of the country and europe during the euro zone. >> it's a people's party and will the everything to be successful and we will wait for the final results tomorrow but

for now we can celebrate. >> reporter: as the votes were counted it became clear her favored people would not make it in parliament and she will turn to opponents the social democrats for help. a grand rapids coalition worked before during merkel's first term as chancellor and germany is not as politically polarized as other countries and the unemployment is low and prosperous and there are not a lot of issues to lean the parties. many germans would prefer a center right and left coalition anyway. >> translator: the moral is in merkel's court and has to find the majority. >> reporter: the influence of the center left could soften germany's chance of austerity in europe but only a little. >> you may see a little bit less

pressure on austerity and maybe some countries will get more time in fulfilling the criteria. but i think pretty much the german policy after the elections on european affairs will be what we have seen in the last four years. >> reporter: the shape of any governing coalition and precisely what it means for europe and the world could take weeks to decide but for germany and the merkel offers the hope of another four years of stability. al jazeera and berlin. >> reporter: and we are in berlin for the latest and she has the third term and they are asking what kind of coalition is she going to form? >> and she probably will be finding out what kind of coalition that will be in an hour's time unless she chooses as her want to buy her time and keep her cards close to her chest because the social democratic party, the party with a grand coalition is holding congress on friday and they are

thinking about a grand coalition and maybe the chancellor tells us what the thinking is later today and to wait a little bit more. however, many germans would like to see a grand coalition and could have consequences for europe and the austerity policies that germany is pushing for and joining me with shedding light on how they may change austerity is the german institute of affairs and what would they ask for austerity? >> they would ask for considerable policy chain with regards to the politics that merkel government so far has run. however, chances will by think europe should will less optimism because the social democrats is very limited with regards to the results that came out last night. >> reporter: one night euro bonds and debt for countries that have trouble financing the government and public spending would that come out of coalition

talks do you think? >> i'm pessimistic to be honest and merkel won't with a majority and the green party they won't have much to say about the european politics, about the current politics. the german electorate saying they agree with the politics so far, so i'm not too obmissic that we will see euro bonds in the near future. >> reporter: thank you very much, we are saying there may be a coalition of government in the offering it is certainly merkel and her austerity policies that will continue and be in charge and continue to be the way europe is, back to the studio. >> reporter: nick thanks for that, nick spicer in berlin. they are gathering in new york for the general assembly and we

will be asking if the u.n. needs drastic reform. also coming up, a chinese tycoon unveils plans for a new multi-billion dollar hollywood but in china. as sport continues, usa, one of the greatest come backs in cup history and we will have details a little later in the program. ♪ the rebels in the southern philippines have teachers in a school, three were captured and they are from the islamic freedom fighters and the group is said to be links to the group responsible for the on going violence in zambuwanga, the self determination in the philippines

is almost 50 years old despite a peace agreement with the government in 1996 and we look at the problems that have led to the two-week siege in the city. >> it was supposed to be a glorious day for peace in the philippines and after 30 years struggle they are on the moral liberation front signed an agreement with the government in 1996 but that only brought on more problems. >> it's an experiment because the law is not comprehensive enough and also in the implementation of the law in terms of the functionality or structure or even leadership. >> reporter: but mnlf was not the only group to speak and as philippines and muslims are called and the milf broke away from the original group and on the verge of signing a more comprehensive and inclusive deal for self determination.

many in milf are not happy and neither are a number of milf fighters and they have broken away and created a whole new armed movement and many are behind spits of violence in the southern philippines and the fighters have been called renegades or rebels misinformed about politics behind the peace and muslims wonder why the armed struggle lasted this long in the first place led by people they didn't select. she was born and raised in zimbawanga, a community with christians, muslims and tribes and her father fled here to escape the war and the that war was brought two weeks ago when they came to declare independence. >> i never felt the need to go out and to fight and be consumed by so much hate. and fear.

we as muslim professionals want to live in a culture of peace and that is our struggle. >> reporter: but as the government continues to talk peace with them, none of the armed groups had their weapons decommissioned and the philippines have communities poor and under developed and she feels that the real problem. she is now working to help feed the tens of thousands displaced by the fighting. hoping more voices like her's will eventually be heard above the sound of guns. al jazeera zambawanga city. >> reporter: cambodia parliament is convened for the first time since july and they boycotted it and accuses the ruling party of vote rigging and bringing the prime minister to power in northwest cambodia. 25 people have been killed in

the southern china after typhoon usagi made landfall and the worst storm there so far this year and winds up to 165 kilometers grounded flights and closed roads across the reason on it is now a tropical storm and scott sent this report. >> reporter: eastern china and this is the community that bore the brunt when then severe typhoon usagi came ashowered sunday evening and 20 were killed and 13 from this community and despite the fact that 250,000 people were evacuated and that included 8,000 fishing vessels being brought on shore when they heard the massive typhoon was coming ashore. there is devastation further north and east from the community but this faced the biggest with 13 dead. the storm continues to track its way west through china and the concern is less devastation than we see in the community and more about flooding and possible

mudsli mudslides and there is concerns because it's a massive storm and a thousand kilometers wide and concern about that and in eastern china it's all about the cleanup. >> reporter: let's take you straight back to nairobi and what you are looking at are scenes in the area just outside west gate mall in nairobi which is where the hostage crisis situation is going on and you can see massive black clouds of smoke rising above the roof of the shopping center. we have been told there was a big explosion just a short time ago. kathryn is on the line, do we have any idea what is going on? >> yes, we have just heard more explosions, very loud explosions and i'm seeing the police have tear gas at the house where i am. right now we are crouching here

and don't know what is going on. the police are here. and there is lots of activity going on. and very clearly people are running, but, yes, we have heard very loud explosions. >> reporter: so several blasts have been heard. do we know if those blasts were the work of the army or the work of the gunman inside the shopping mall? >> it's really very, very difficult to tell because from where we are the mall is not even visible and it's unclear and we know the military want to end as quickly as possible and possibly by today. it's very unclear whether the attackers or the forces are there, it's very hard to know because it's very confusing from where we are. >> reporter: come back to us when you get more information.

kathryn, so to recap reheard several large explosions coming from the west gate shopping mall. there are police in the area, keeping on lookers back and firing tear gas and know the military said they wanted to launch the final assault and wanted to bring this siege under control by the end of today but don't know if that is the beginning of the assault but we will keep you updated as we get the information. we have been hearing about the damage caused by typhoon usagi which has been down grades to a storm and steph has the picture following that storm, steph. >> reporter: let's look at this as it gradually disintegrated over china and there is a lot of clouds and rain but not the same intensity as it made rainfall and it gave us some impressive totals of rain. in the eastern parts of taiwan

we saw 855 millimeters of rain just in three days. that is clearly a stunning amount of rain. london expects 557 millimeters and new york 1056 and gives you some kind of idea how much rain it is and clearly we have seen wet weather in taiwan and further south here over parts of the philippines the storm has left us and gave us a lot of rain and when it was with us gave a lot of rain and still raining, 406 millimeters of rain in 24 hours on the western coast here. clearly an awful lot of rain and manilla we are seeing flooding and this is what we see out of the capitol and clearly although the storm has passed this region is still going to be seeing some terrific amounts of rain over the next few days. philippines seeing a lot of rain and southeast and parts of china as it disintegrates and will link with a front working away

across and give us very heavy rain. >> thanks for that. now syrian president bashir assad has new evidence of russia on the use of chemical weapons by rebel fighters in an interview with the tv channel he said the are ebb rebels were working under foreign directives and terrorists could make them not reach the chemical weapons site. >> translator: the security situation in some areas could not allow or put obstacles in the path of inspectors and areas with gunman who want to hinder the process of inspection and the terrorists are in other countries and the countries drive the terrorists affect for getting the government blamed for hindering this agreement. >> reporter: let's take you back to nairobi and things are moving quickly on the ground.

we are told there is a lot of movement of security personnel and a few minutes ago we heard the loud explosions, a series of explosions from the west gate mall. reporters and cameras and must be said being kept quite far back and it's difficult to get a sense of what is going on. kathryn is on the line for us, what have you been seeing? >> a lot of movement, and a helicopter and police and military choppers hovering around and there was a series of explosions. you can see all the smoke coming out of that building. it's very unclear to tell whether the explosions could be coming or the attackers but we have information, there you go, more -- another very large loud explosion and we got information earlier that some of the

attackers had explosives tied on them and explosive side on the hostages and it's very hard to verify this but it's information that was coming out as well but the concern now is what is happening or what has happened to the hostages who were still in there, very difficult to tell because it's frustrating that we cannot really see what is going on. >> and i know that to some extent you are being kept in the dark about what is going on for obvious reasons because of the media and the gunman will know what is going on. but has there been any kind of negotiation between the gunman and the army? al shabaab who has taken responsibility for this said they are not interested in talks and threatened to kill the hostages if there is now kind of full on assault. >> and what is happening now, there has been no negotiations.

al shabaab is cleared and they will not negotiate and saying the whole day that they are going to kill all the hostages if this continues. the government has not said anything about a negotiating. the government saying they cannot negotiate with terrorists and this is what they are calling the people, the attackers in there. just to tell you what is happening where i am again is we see a series of policemen and uniformed and plain clothed who are ready for talks. it's very difficult situation and very frustrating to know what exactly what is going on. >> reporter: you are breaking umslightly on the phone. give us an idea of how many security personnel are on the scene and what kind of security

personnel are they, are they all army or are there police there, are special forces there? >> this was a more people operation. where we are right now is just police from different units and plain clothed police as well. but at the mall we have more people and forces and the army, we have the police and we also have foreign and special forces from we are told from israel and america as well who are not just helping with -- we are not just giving technical but physically engaging alongside the kenyas. >> reporter: thanks very much indeed for that, and our correspondent on the ground there, describing the scenes we have been looking at on the pictures coming to us from nairobi and a lot of movement of security personal and saw armed

army officers and armored vehicles coming down the road and cameras are kept back but in the last few minutes there has been another explosion and black clouds rising from the top of the building, the west gate shopping mall where there are 10-15 gunman up there with an unspecified number of hostages and the military pinned them in one part of the mall but their main concern is safeguarding the lives of the civilians and could be the beginning of the final assault and we simply don't know what is going on. we can see there are lots of soldiers moving in to position. so we will bring you the latest on this of course on those ongoing documents on the ground there in nairobi. we are going to take a short break but don't go away, still to come on the news hour. >> i'm in brazil where the people that live hearsay they

want their native land back. the problem is it's been taken over by farmland. coming up, from deep oceans to tropical forests the challenges facing hundreds of scientists as they prepare a new report on climate change. and with the english season only five games old we have our first managerial casualty and we have that story and the rest of the sport after the break. ♪

♪ welcome back and the top

stories on al jazeera, several loud explosions have been heard at the west gate shopping mall in nairobi and troops running in the area of the mall and further gunshots have been heard and al shabaab are in there and 68 have been killed since the siege began saturday and they said they will end the standoff by the end of today. there have been angry protests in pakistan over the skilling of 81 by suicide bombers and the worst attack on christians in the country in recent years and most of the victims were buried on monday. and the german chancellor is celebrating after leading her party to victory in general election and merkel will now return to office for a record third term. tens of thousands of bangladesh

factory workers have turned out for a mass rally in the country's capital and want an increase of 1 1/2 times the set minimum wage and they agreed to 20% increase and workers say it's not enough. 300 of the country's factories have shut because of the process. bangladesh's $20 billion industry employs workers who earn $48 a month and we are on the line from the capitol and what is the latest on those protests? i apologize we lost them and we will try and get him back when we can. let's go back to the developments on the ground in nairobi. fast-moving developments. it's been a standoff now for three days. we have gunmen hold up in the west gate shopping mall, a popular mall with kenya and

patriots and we have seen black clouds as you can see rising from the roof of the shopping mall and heard loud explosions and gunfire and heavy and sustained gunfire going on throughout the past few hours. looking at the live pictures we are watching kenya soldiers running to take positions rounds the mall and very difficult to get a really clear picture of what is going on because of course reporters and caravan are back and security is an issue and not just the lives of the people but also not wanting to transmit information to people who are inside. al shabaab has been prolific about tweeting messages warning the kenya army not to go after them and they will not negotiate and will kill hostages if any kind of assault has been going on and we know the military has

been going through and clearing shops and searching out all the various outlet's and trying to find people who are hiding there and not necessarily hostages and hiding from the gunman and we know they have the hostages and the gunman in one small part of the shopping mall. so the question now becomes how do they end this standoff, how do they end the siege with hopefully no loss of, civilian life and we know 68 people are already confirmed dead and the thought is that that death toll could rise simply because of there are -- could be bodies inside the shopping mall that we don't know about yet. our reporter catherine is near the scene and she is standing in an area where there are onlookers and soldiers, can you tell us what has been happening

in the past few minutes? >> yes, we heard multiple and loud explosions and smoke out of the building and a lot of movement and running around and we don't know exactly what is happening but it looks like what the military and the security forces said, they want this to end today and we are not sure whether explosions are coming from, whether it's military services or forces or whether it's from the attackers. we had been told repeatedly that some of the attackers have explosives on them and they put explosives on hostages as well and that is really the concern right now, what is happening with the hostages. >> reporter: and do we have any further information on how many gunmen there are, what they are armed with, where they might be in the shopping mall, are they

in a specific area or are their whereabouts totally unknown to security forces? >> the president said there are about 10-15 attackers. they are women and men as well. we are not really sure where they are right now. we have been hearing that they are -- they had been hold up at the super market on the first floor and i think it's more enforcements. >> we can see the soldiers behind you, that is the road to the shopping mall, right? >> yes. that is the road to the shopping mall, about 200 meters that is the road that leads to the shopping mall and it's very difficult to see, there are a lot of trees there and it's very frustrating because we are not getting much information and like i said we are beings to some of the attackers have

explosives that were tied around them but this is information that we cannot really verify and it's very difficult to verify a lot of things here but this looks like the major thing just intensified. >> reporter: how many army personnel and security personnel have gone down that road and are at the scene? >> we are seeing -- we have seen many military personnel and police officers being brought here as reenforcements. we know that there are about 10-15 attackers and some of them are women and we don't know how many hostages they are holding and we are told about 7 are the figures going around and we don't know if there are other civilians hiding in the mall. the reenforcements are being brought in and i can't tell you

the exact figures of the military personnel who have been brought in here but there are many. >> reporter: and we do have some idea of what the scenes are inside the shopping center because some police teams have been in to look into shops and places where people might be hiding. and they said that they think the death toll could actually be higher than the numbers we are reporting. >> that is a very big possibility because other than the initial footage of the day when people took some civilians took some pictures of the personnel going around, trying to find where people are hiding, we have not seen -- we have not seen much coming out of it and it's very difficult to tell what is going on. there has been a sporadic shooting since morning. there was activity, almost the

whole last night as well. it's difficult to tell how many people are in there, difficult to tell how many people are dead. it's also very difficult to tell what is happening with the hostages now especially after this loud explosion. >> and what has been the reaction to this across kenya about what is happening here in nairobi and are they mad that an attack is happening in the first place and mad the government has been involved actively in somalia despite the effects of al shabaab? >> people are very angry but more angry with the targets and have shown a lot of unity and the government told them to keep calm and they are on a list saying the situation perhaps could have been handled better or if there was enough intelligence it could actually have been prevented because this

is something that was planned over a period of time and kenyans have always questioned military moves into somalia as saying that perhaps that was not the right thing to do, perhaps the country should have been secured before the troops went in to somalia and there was small-scale explosions throughout last year, but al shabaab never had responsibility and people are upset about that but they are also united at the face of this tragedy. so there has been a lot of support to the government and encouragement to the government and the military forces who were fighting this and people are donating blood and people are volunteering and there are a lot of volunteers bringing food and water and a lot of solidarity

among kenya and supporting the forces fighting the attackers here. >> reporter: do they have any idea how many hostages are in the building and are under the control of the gunman? >> it's very unclear to know. they want to know how many hostages are being held because it's a big shopping mall and where -- i'm sorry, it's a big shopping mall and where this attackers are is a super market and it's a big super market and different people are hiding in different places and we don't know how many they are holding and it's going around because 7 we are told but this is something we have not verified but beyond hostages we are also told there are other people who are hiding in different parts of unsecured parts of the building. the basement is not secure, the

basement is where the complex is and it's very hard to tell how many people are there, hostages and civilians hiding in different places. >> reporter: i asked it because i wondered if there were lots of family members turning up to the area where you are obviously because the relatives have not come home and knew they had been at that shopping mall that day and must be very worried about what is happening to them. all their families waiting there to see what happens. >> today there are no families awaiting and we are checking and families were told to go and register with the police. families and relatives who are missing have been told to register with the police, with the red cross. we don't know the number of people unaccounted for. yesterday we did see a couple of relatives coming out, a woman was wailing saying she had been

communicating with a relative of hers inside and the communication just went off because maybe the phone ran out of battery or something like that but she was very distraught and we saw another man saying his wife and child are in there and had bend communicating and again that communication went off and the relatives are distraught and not here right now but there are many. and we can't verify the numbers and that is the frustrating part of this all. >> reporter: and you yourself have personal experience with this because your sister was trapped inside the shopping mall for several hours before she was able to escape. >> yes, and my sister was there for a couple of hours and she and her children were coming from a coffee shop and they heard gunshots and an explosion. she said she had and ran to a clothes shop in the shopping center and it was quite traumatizing for her because she

was seeing movement outside of the mall with gunmen and wasn't sure if it was police or whether it was the attackers. she was very uncertain. and very confused but later she was received, the concern and the biggest worry is the people who are in there. >> reporter: it looks like anything moved on since we have been speaking? i'm looking at live pictures coming out from there and, you know, mostly what i can see is thick, black smoke rising from the building. >> yes. the black smoke, there is a lot of movement here, military helicopters are hovering around our head and it has become a bit calm now and not under the tension there was before. we are being told we have been told repeatedly that some of the hostages had explosives around them and could be what is

exploding but we can't tell if it's military forces or the security forces that -- whether the explosions are by security forces or the attackers in there. it's very difficult to tell from the position where we are in but there is still a lot of activity in the sky as well. like i told you military choppers. >> okay, stand by for us. we will be returning to you at some point but on the phone now we have got a person who is the deputy president of africa access who can join us now. you have been watching what is going on, what is your assessment of the situation? >> well, i have been watching of what is going on and seemed like we get information that these

are bkdf regarding the explosion and the kbf wants to influence the gunmen and bring this to a conclusion. and i think they have done a very good job. when you look at all rescue operations locally, the intention is to influence the gunman and then you go and arrest or kill the gunmen, that is the impression i have from the information i am able to have. >> reporter: the kenya government sworn to bring perpetrators to justice and said they will bring the master minds to justice, is it possible to find out who the master minds are given that they could be al shabaab high ranking officers sitting in somalia. >> and bring access there because the intent of the system

right now is trying to bring the dogs and information as to who has access of the program. and i think the reason why they took a bit of time to try it at the mall is to ensure the gunmen being alive to get more information. but there has been a lot of intelligence around that and these kinds of events need to be nipped in the bud and it's a challenge for the kenya system. and it may take a while but i believe it will take place. >> reporter: i suppose kenya will have to rethink its security in the future as well given an attack this big has taken place in the heart of its

capitol. >> for sure that our security system has been on a very low end and i think there is going to be mutual regarding a new installation and security intelligence to give more importance and kenya will work with countries and a lot may experience with information with the militants so we can respond and they need to get to the israeli and american special forces and fbi and cia and kenya cannot afford to claim we have programs and don't need international help and we must work with countries with specific experience with these kinds of acts so our troops and intelligence system know what to look for and it's really ap

pauling that a murder twist strike like this that the kenya police are robust and they can do this quickly and if they did that maybe we would have helped a lot more people from being killed. >> reporter: sorry to interrupt you. >> sorry. >> reporter: thank you indeed for your thoughts and this is the deputy president of africa access. let's go to tristen who is a freelance reporter for the times newspaper who is on the scene and we can see a lot of movement right now and people are running towards fire engines and army officers getting into vehicles. tell us what is happening. >> yeah, there is a lot more activity over the last 15-20 minutes as a tank is pulled up outside the mall itself and there was a quite large explosion about 15 minutes ago and a constant shake of black

smoke rising into the sky and this is underneath here we are based so the military responds to the ongoing siege which they are calling for the fire engines and moving around. kenya army is saying that it needs to control the situation by then but it's a large one and seems to be coming from the left. >> reporter: are you all able to get any information out of the security forces? i mean, are they telling you what is going on or whether this is the start of a final assault against the government? >> no, they are being fairly -- i guess it's understandable given the operations and the talk here and the meetings and when the siege will end and the operation is going on and

yesterday and they went this early again this morning so it's deferred and kind of grinding, gradual attempt to secure parts of the shopping mall and try to get whatever remaining hostages may be in there out and we don't know how many civilians are there and there is smoke coming out. >> reporter: thank you for that and we are on the events at the scene in nairobi. as you can see from the live pictures there reporters are saying there is a lot more activity in the past 20 minutes and a flurry of soldiers running down that road which is the road heading toward the west gate shopping mall in nairobi, a lot of vehicles maneuvering around as well and that follows a series of loud explosions and a plume of black smoke coming from the roof of the shopping mall and we have no activity if it

was by the military or the gunman but the crucial question that is on everybody's mind is just how many civilians are still in that building. nobody knows how many civilians are there in there, how many are still traps in parts of the building and how many actually under the control of the hostage takers and we are being told there is rounds 10-15 gunmen in there but of course upper most on security forces is how to rescue those hostages without causing any more civilian deaths and of course at the moment that death toll standing at least 68 according to the red cross who are also on the scene. let's go to catherine who is on the scene for the last three days and this operation has been dragging out for three days now.

the military will be wanting to see it ended but want to do it in a way that saves as many civilian lives as possible. >> that is correct. and it's very difficult for them and judging from the situation right now, it's very difficult to see how this is abandoned sensitively and the attackers and hostages are in there and don't know what is happening but there is loud explosions and people are told and some of the attackers had explosives on them. we are just receiving reports they could have blown themselves up and this is something that we cannot verify and cannot tell whether the explosions, whether it's the military who has done it or if they just did it themselves but we know the explosions happened inside the mall and inside the mall, like i

said we have attackers and hostages and some people who are hiding in various and secured parts and we also have some of the security forces who are in there. so it's very difficult and very confusing right now what is happening in there and who has been affected. this blast was coming from in the mall and there are people in the mall. >> reporter: thanks very much for that, just for the moment and we are in nairobi and let's get to on to the phone now and speak to bernard who is the news editor for capitol fm in nairobi. what is your understanding of what is happening? >> when -- at the moment what we know is there has been a loud blast which was followed by faint gunfire in the building and big smoke that is billowing

out of the building and police are going inside to try and rescue the hostages and as of now we don't know what is happening all we know is there is a blast and we don't know the set of the hostages and the attackers but expect the police are going in now. >> reporter: have you been speaking to the police or is anyone able to get any information out of the authorities? >> well, all we know, police have been saying that after this with the hostages and some of the attackers were inside but we do not know exactly what number and we don't know how they are fit as of now. but the police and we spoke to him a few minutes ago and he said they will be going in shortly and we are waiting. as of now the only speculations are about the number of people

inside but we cannot get the information now. >> reporter: bernard you live and work this nairobi and obviously heard about the threats from al shabaab over the past few years with kenya being involved in the peace keeping force in somalia, can you believe that something like this happened, that the security was such that this was allowed to happen? >> well, this is what happened, and ready to accept the children and there will be attacks and on high alert for several months and started but what happened on saturday appears to have caught everyone by surprise and it appears nobody was prepared for what happened. >> reporter: do you think, i

know these kinds of questions will be asked once this crisis is over, but do you think this could make ten yeah rethink the involvement in somalia? >> i did not get that. >> reporter: there will be questions asked after the situation is resolved, do you think it will make kenya rethink its involvement in somalia? >> well, the public said yesterday that despite what happened, these attacks is about morals and the kenya government is not going to pull the troops out of somalia. and this is going to make them even obtain the war in somalia even more so the fact if this is pulling troops out of somalia

and the war and al shabaab in many ways. >> reporter: for that an and this is the news editor for fm in nairobi updating us on what is happening at the scene. you can see from the live pictures there are quite a few old gers, just at the entrance to the west gate shopping mall with a huge plume of smoke coming from the building and explosions heard and movement by soldiers and vehicles and our contributor there bernard saying that statement is expected shortly. very difficult to know what is going on because clearly for obvious reasons we are not getting updates from the kenya authorities. catherine is on the scene and there seems to be a little less movement at the moment. i don't know what you are seeing happening around you but there seems to be an awful lot of

personnel behind you. . >> announcer: this is al jazeera america. we will return to this program after messages from your local affiliate.

>> good morning. this is aljazeera. i'm del walters and these are stories that we are following. in kenya, a standoff added a shopping mall. this is a live look at what is going on now. thick smoke seen billowing from the top of the mall and explosions can be heard coming from inside. military officials going in early to take back control from al shabab fighters who killed dozens and took dozens hostage. world leaders gathering in new york for the sufficient general assembly topping the agenda getting chemical weapons out of syria. key democrats and republicans expect a