KENYA’S security forces have killed the Islamic extremist gunmen whose assault on a luxury hotel and shopping complex in Nairobi took 14 lives, President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

In a televised address, he said “All the terrorists have been eliminated”. He did not say how many attackers were involved.

Kenyatta added that more than 700 people were evacuated during the security operation and urged Kenyans to “go back to work without fear”, saying the East African country is safe for citizens and visitors.

The attack involved at least four armed men who invaded the hotel and shops.

MEANWHILE, a harsh weather front has brought sandstorms, hail and rain to parts of the Middle East.

In the Egyptian capital Cairo, visibility was low as an orange cloud of dust blocked out the sky and pedestrians covered their faces from the wind gusts.

The National:

Dusty winds whipped through Israel and the West Bank as well, with hail falling near Tel Aviv and meteorologists announcing that snow was expected in Jerusalem.

In Libya, rain, wind and cold weather was driving increased demand for electricity that overloaded the grids and led to power outages.

ELSEWHERE, authorities have conducted raids in several parts of Germany on suspected members of a far-right group calling itself the National Socialist Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Deutschland.

Prosecutors and regional police in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said more than 100 weapons, including air guns, swords, machetes and knives, were seized in the raids on 12 properties. They also found membership lists.

Seventeen people were targeted but there was no word of any arrests. About 40 people are under investigation, authorities said.

The group’s members are suspected of glorifying Nazism and, in some cases, of harbouring “violent fantasies”.

FINALLY, police in Zimbabwe armed with AK-47 rifles have arrested activist and pastor Evan Mawarire at his home in Harare as a crackdown grows over protests against dramatic fuel-price hikes.

The National:

As some hungry Harare residents reported being tear-gassed by police when they ventured out for bread, President Emmerson Mnangagwa denounced what he called “wanton violence and cynical destruction”.

He noted a right to protest and called for calm, saying he understands people’s “pain and frustration”, but he appeared to side with authorities who blamed the opposition for the unrest.

Mawarire was clutching a Bible when police bundled him into their car.