万花筒 2013-09-23&09-27 恐怖分子血洗商场 要求肯政府从索马里撤军

 AP reporter Jason Straziuso is right outside the mall right now along the police lines. Moments ago we spoke¹ with him directly.

 

-Can you describe for me the scene at the mall right now? What are you seeing from your vantage point?

 

-The Kenyan security officials have really increased the security perimeter² this morning. They pushed back the crowds that hundreds of curious Kenyans have gathered. 

 

-And are you hearing gunfire still?

 

-The gunfire within the lasted an hour or two has tapered³ off. I haven’t already heard any. However, and I don’t know what this means. Just a little one hour ago we saw Kenyan security forces entered the mall, with what looked like a rocket-propelled grenade which seems like a really heavy weapon for this type of situation. 

 

-How well trained  are the security forces? Are they equipped to handle a situation like this?

 

-In general, the low ranking low-trained guys, the answer is absolutely no. And there was a slow response yesterday. *** now a lot of resources here. The police don’t have cars, typically. They’re on foot. Security forces were arriving on foot to this emergency yesterday. However, Kenya’s elite⁴ units have been trained by the US military and Britain's military. And those guys by all accounts really know what they’re doing.   

 

-And so, while the initial response was a little bit slow, are the elite troops on the scene now at least?

 

-Yeah, they’re on the scene. They’re inside the building. They started entering the building late Saturday night in different ways. Those, of course, would be the troops that we’re hearing the gunfire from exchanges. 

 

-And to be clear, as far as we can understand here, the motivation of this attack is not to go after westerners, but really it’s about African politics and the Somalians wanting the Kenyans out of their country. Is that a correct assessment⁵?

 

-That’s correct. These hardcore terrorists understand the power of public relations. They know that hitting this upscale mall where Americans and Europeans go to eat and go to shop generates a lot of news in Europe, a lot of news in America. That’s ultimately what they’re seeking. They’re seeking to embarrass Kenya, and ultimately try to force Kenya to withdraw their troops that they have stationed in Somalia. I think that the most important issue is the number of hostages inside and angering for those hostages. That’s the next, that’s what the story is now going .

 

-Jason Straziuso, thank you very much. 

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 perimeter   

n.周边，周长，周界

参考例句：

• The river marks the eastern perimeter of our land.这条河标示我们的土地东面的边界。
• Drinks in hands,they wandered around the perimeter of the ball field.他们手里拿着饮料在球场周围漫不经心地遛跶。

3 tapered   

adj. 锥形的，尖削的，楔形的，渐缩的，斜的 动词taper的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The tail tapered to a rounded tip. 尾部越来越细，最后成了个圆尖。
• The organization tapered off in about half a year. 那个组织大约半年内就逐渐消失了。

4 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

5 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？