UPDATE - Kenyan president says 14 killed in hotel attack

UPDATES WITH US SURVIVOR OF 9-11 AMONG CASUALTIES

By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenya's president on Wednesday said that all the attackers who stormed a hotel in the capital Nairobi with guns and explosives had been eliminated.

Speaking on national television, Uhuru Kenyatta said: "I can now confirm that the security operation at Dusit complex is over and all the terrorists have been eliminated."

"As of this moment, we have confirmation that 14 innocent lives were lost with others injured."

Al-Shabaab militants on Tuesday attacked an upscale hotel in Nairobi. The attackers blew up their vehicle outside the hotel complex.

Kenyatta praised security officers for responding quickly to save over 700 people who were in the hotel.

He gave no details on the number of attackers but said action will be taken against the Somalia-based al-Shabaab militant group.

"We will seek out every single person who was involved in the funding, planning and execution of the heinous act. We will pursue relentlessly wherever they will be until they are held to account."

He vowed that Kenya will not change its stance in the war against terrorism.

U.S. citizen Jason Spindler, a survivor of the September 2001 al-Qaeda attack in New York, is among the casualties of the hotel attack, police later confirmed.

Speaking of his brother, a tech entrepreneur, Jonathan Spindler wrote on Twitter: “Jason was a survivor of 9-11 and a fighter, I am sure he gave them hell, there are no words to describe how our family is feeling."