NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan security forces were in the final stages of flushing out Islamic extremist terrorists from a besieged shopping mall, the vice president said late Monday, two days after the upscale mall was seized by members of a Somali group linked to al-Qaida.

It is unlikely that any more hostages remained inside Westgate Mall, another official said.

But Kenyan officials made similar claims of a quick resolution Sunday and the siege has continued for another day. It is not possible to independently verify their assertions.

Three attackers were killed in the fighting Monday, officials said, and more than 10 suspects were arrested. Eleven Kenyan soldiers were wounded in the running gun battles. By evening, Kenyan security officials claimed the upper hand.

“Taken control of all the floors. We’re not here to feed the attackers with pastries but to finish and punish them,” Police Inspector General David Kimaiyo said on Twitter.

Kenya’s interior minister said the evacuation of hostages “has gone very, very well” and that Kenyan officials are “very certain” that there are few if any hostages left in the building.

Vice President William Ruto landed in Kenya late Monday after International Criminal Court officials in The Hague gave him permission to return to Kenya. Ruto is on trial for crimes against humanity charges over allegations he helped orchestrate Kenya’s 2007-08 post-election violence.

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku revised the death toll to 62. Kenyan officials earlier said 59 people have died since the siege on Westgate Mall began Saturday, while the Red Cross had put the toll at 68, then in a tweet lowered it to 62, saying some bodies had been counted twice.

Earlier witness reports had indicated that a woman was among the estimated 10 to 15 attackers. Lenku said that instead some male attackers had dressed up like women.

Dark plumes of smoke rose from the mall for more than an hour Monday afternoon after four large explosions rocked the upscale Westlands neighborhood. A person with knowledge of the rescue operation told The Associated Press that the smoke was rising up and out of a large skylight inside the mall’s main department and grocery store, Nakumatt, where goods like mattresses may have been lit on fire.

Volleys of gunfire and a thick, dark column of smoke that burned for roughly 90 minutes followed the four explosions. Military and police helicopters and one plane circled over the Nairobi mall, giving the upscale neighborhood the feel of a war zone.

Kenyan forces were in charge of all floors inside the mall, though terrorists could still be hiding inside, said Gen. Julius Karangi, the Kenya Chief of Defense forces.

Fighters from an array of nations participated in the attack claimed by al-Shabab, Karangi said.

“We have an idea who these people are and they are clearly a multinational collection from all over the world,” he said.

In the United States, the FBI is looking into whether Americans were involved in the Kenya mall attack, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said.

Kenyan officials announced Sunday that “most” hostages had been rescued, but no numbers were given. Kenya’s Red Cross said in a statement, citing police, that 49 people had been reported missing. Kenyan officials have never said how many hostages they thought the attackers had, but have said preserving the hostages’ lives is a top priority.

Kenyans and foreigners were among those confirmed dead, including British, French, Canadians, Indians, a Ghanaian, a South African and a Chinese woman. The U.K. Foreign Office said Monday it has confirmed the deaths of four British nationals.

From neighboring Somalia, spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage for al-Shabab — the militant group that claimed responsibility for the attack — said in an audio file posted on a website that the hostage takers had been ordered to “take punitive action against the hostages” if force was used to try to rescue them.

Al-Shabab said on a Twitter feed, an account that unlike some others appears to be genuine, that the attackers had lots of ammunition. The feed said that Kenya’s government would be responsible for any loss of hostages’ lives.