caroline malone has more. >> people trying to run away from armed men inside the westgate mall in nairobi. they moved in via a restaurant on the ground floor. but by then there were already casualties. the shopping complex was packed at about midday local time when people heard a large explosion. then they saw merch with ak -- men with ak 47 machine guns open fire. some of the shoppers were able to escape and about 20 people were rescued by police. but dozens of people are thought to still be trapped inside. >> hold up on the second floor. -- holed up on the second floor by the cinema. they have been isolated by the police and the police are actually combing room by room, floor by floor, as the issue, the situation develops. >> there is a security process to get into the shopping mall. but as seen here there's a restaurant on the ground floor that's protected from the road only by a balcony and from the street just outside, sporadic gun fire can still be heard. caroline malone al jazeera. >> earlier i spoke with johnson director of viewpoint africa about the attack. >> the signs on the wa

caroline malone has more. >> reporter: people trying to runaway from armed men inside the west gate mall in nairobi. police are also inside the mall trying to secure the area. they moved in via a restaurant on the ground floor. but by then, there were already casualties. the shopping complex was packed at midday local time when people heard a large explosion. then they saw men with ak47 machine guns open fire. some of the shoppers were able to escape. and about 20 people were rescued by the police. but dozens of people are still thought to be trapped inside. >> they are hold up on the second floor at the si cinema. they have been isolate bide the police and the police are combing room by room. floor by floor. but as they issue [inaudible]. >> reporter: there is a security process to get in to the shopping mall. but as seen here, there is a restaurant on the ground floor that's protected from the road only by a balcony and from the street just outside. sporadic gunfire can still be heard. caroline malone, al jazerra. >> we are also now hearing from witnesses who were at the mall, let's li

caroline malone, al jazeera. >> a suspected drone strike in afghanistan's border. three people were killed and one other person was injured. >>> there with been a thousand protesters rallying in sudan calling for omaral bashar to go. >>> the government cut fuel suddenicies. and in protests 33 people have died. we're live from khartoum. so the president now not just under pressure from people power, but political pressure, too. >> absolutely. there has been condemnation from his own party, people saying a bit off the record, a bit anonymously saying these subsidies, the cutting of these subsidies should not have happened at the moment. and we're hearing there is pressure on the president to try to retract that. however, we're also hearing officially from the government that that's not possible. many people within the government will tell you with all that loss of income that we got since the north split from the south sudan, and 75% less in oil income, that's the only way out of the current economic crisis. >> what is the feeling there? do people expect the presiden

caroline malone, al jazeera. >> harriet martin is live in chartoum. it seems that police were using live am mission, but i gather there are conflicting casualty figures. >> translator: yeah, they're hugely conflicts. we had the government over the last three days admit to 33 now of the deaths that took place. reports from human rights groups. they say 50 kills, and medical sources say it's within -- well over 100. it's impossible to verify the figures. >> of course. police are using live ammunition, and i think that's a definite, isn't it? >> reporter: absolutely. >> the question is, harriet, sort of will the security forces using live ammunition frighten protesters off the streets or provoke more confrontations? >> reporter: absolutely. they have what's been reported as a shoot to kill policy and the people that died received head and chest wounds. you're absolutely right. that is the question right now. it seems judging from reports just in the last half an hour, protesters still continues. this morning we've had the funeral of one of those killed y

caroline malone has more. >> reporter: this is one of the deadliest attacks of the day. a bomb went off in a parked car in sadr city, baghdad. >> translator: the explosion happened here. many people were killed. many cars were burned. many workers and poor people died because of this. >> reporter: while people scrambled for help in sadr, at least four blasts hit other neighborhoods. in parking lots and at outdoor markets. crowded places that have resulted in a large number of civilians injured and killed. security has been tightened across iraq recently as repeated violence claims more and more lives. even in the northern kurdish region, a more peaceful part of the country was hit on sunday. a coordinated suicide and car bomb went off, the first major attack there since 2007. >> there's a need for a new political approach to win over especially those people in the area they feel are marginalized, mainly the arab sunnis, and the government has not done enough in this field. also now what's happening in kurdistan reflects the increasing role by some of the iraqi kurdish le

caroline malone, al jazerra. >> katherine is in the kenyan capital and joins us live online. bring us up-to-date from what you know from the scene there. >> reporter: a lot of people at the west gate mall [inaudible] some relatives waiting to know what is going on. some of the their loved ones are still inside the mall. the area has been totally yard ended off. we are not sure what's going on inside the mall. but we are being told that the tackers have been isolated in a room and are surrounded by police the hostage situation is not clear, we are told that they are in a supermarket and that that supermarket and people are still inside the supermarket. we don't know how many hostages the gunmen actually have, but they are using, we are told in of the hostages as human shields. >> and katherine, so far we have had news from the presidency of one arrest. is it clear how many tackers there are in total. >> reporter: what we know is there are 18 gunmen this mall has multiple entrie entries ande told they were getting in from different routes, it's not clear how many there are. the

caroline malone al jazeera. >> joining us with more on the attack is aya johnson, thank you so much for helping us break through this breaking news. who do you think is responsible for this attack? >> well the signs on the wall showing it might be the al shabaab, they have already threatened kenya to attack them. threatened many buildings in the past so yes they vow vowed in 21 that they would attack kenny. this is one of the most uglier threats that have truly come to pass today. >> can you talk about the history between those two countries? >> well, the somalia as we know has not had a functioning government for many, many years. of course more recently they have had such a government. during that void period we have many war lords and the al shabaab movement has come out of that branded by the united states government as aterrorist group. the kenyan government took the fight to them and of course they have not gone, they've not been flushed out completely and they're continually posing a serious threat to kenyan civil society. >> since kevin yah doe -- kenyas live with the threats ta

caroline malone, al jazerra. >> of course al jazerra will have live coverage of president obama's prime time speech on tuesday nights. in the meantime, you can get the very latest on the syrian situation on our website algentleman seejazerra.com. the egyptian army has launched new attacks. reports say at least nine people were killed in in a rugged desert region near israel. security officials say the morrisey supporters have been stages almost daily assaults on security forces and other targets. the egyptian government appears to be focusing on a group that helped toss the knew bar he can. they are looking in to charges that 35 activists, send money from the u.s. and other countries to aid the 2011 up rising. the activists call the accusation false and say it's just an intimidation tool. a violent independence day in brazil asthmas i have protests erupt all across the country. anger at political corruption and demand for better services. in rio police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the crowd. at least 10 people were arrested and in other cities, demonstrations were mostly