An American Jewish consultant and at least 13 other people were killed when terrorists stormed a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department confirmed the death of Jason Spindler, who was at a business meeting in the offices of I-Dev International, his investment consulting firm, when he was fatally shot. Eleven Kenyans and one British citizen were also reported as among those killed.
The Jewish community in Nairobi is assisting the Spindler family in the repatriation of Spindler’s body back to the United States.
The Somali Islamic jihadist organization Al-Shabab, reportedly linked to Al-Qaeda, has taken responsibility for the attack, which took place at the Dusit D2 hotel complex just after 3 p.m. The terrorists detonated a bomb in the parking lot and then a suicide bomber exploded in the lobby.
The complex, in Nairobi’s Westlands neighborhood that is popular with foreign visitors and workers, includes banks, offices, restaurants and bars.
Hostages remained trapped in the hotel until early on Wednesday morning, when Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that “all the terrorists have been eliminated.”
Al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, also carried out the 2013 attack at the nearby Westgate Mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people.
