Kenyan security find an explosive after deadly hotel attack

Kenyan bomb disposal experts on Thursday found and safely detonated an explosive left over from the deadly extremist attack on a Nairobi luxury hotel complex, and the Kenya Red Cross said no one appeared to be missing after it had checked nearly 100 reported cases.

The Kenyan government said its quick reaction to Tuesday's assault on the dusitD2 complex reflected improvements in its ability to respond to such brazen assaults on civilian targets. It was "much better handled" in comparison to the 2013 attack on the nearby Westgate Mall, said Joseph Mucheru, the information minister.

Police took hours to respond to that attack and official information was scarce or conflicting, leading to reforms.

"The speed, the response and the conclusion of this matter was swift," the minister told journalists.

Al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked extremist group that carried out the 2013 attack that killed 67 people, also claimed responsibility for the hotel assault this week that took the lives of 20 civilians, one police officer and five attackers.

In contrast to the government's fumbling response to the Westgate attack, the better-coordinated operation at the dusitD2 hotel was under the "central command" of the head of the paramilitary wing of the Kenyan police known as the General Service Unit, according to The Standard, a Kenyan newspaper.