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UPDATE: 1:00 PM EST

According to the Associated Press the Kenyan president has confirmed that the terrorist in the Westgate mall attack have been defeated. Three of the malls floors were collapsed and the death toll has increased to 72.

More bodies are said to be trapped.

We’ll keep you updated on the latest.

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After much speculation and claims from the terrorist group al-Shabaab (a group allied with al Qaeda) that Americans were in fact involved in the bloody Westgate mall attack in Kenya, it has been confirmed.

Americans and at least one Briton are among those who attacked customers while they shopped at the Nairobi, Kenya mall, according to Kenya’s foreign minister.

The foreign minister, Amina Mohamed, said in an interview with PBS’ “NewsHour” program that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” in the U.S. The attacker from Britain was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Mohamed said.

Earlier this week U.S. officials started looking into the claims that Americans were involved. But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday the department had “no definitive evidence of the nationalities or the identities” of the attackers.

But now that their identities have been confirmed, one thing is for sure. The world’s governments are going to have to start working together to prevent more terrorist attacks from happening.

Mohamed said Kenya needs to work with other governments to fight the increasing terrorist threat and “much more with the U.S and the U.K., because both the victims and the perpetrators came from Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United States. From the information we have, two or three Americans and so far I’ve heard of one Brit.”

She added: “That just goes to underline the global nature of this war that we are fighting.”

As of Tuesday morning, Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group said it’s militants were still holed up in the Kenyan shopping mall, boasting there there were countless bodies still in the building, raising fears that the staggering death toll of 62 could rise when all is done.

Our prayers are with Kenya at this time. We’ll keep you updated on the latest.

SOURCE: CBS, Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter