Kenya: Garissa Terrorist Blown Up in His Own Explosive

A middle aged terror suspect in Garissa was on wednsday night ripped to peaces after an IED he was trying to plant went off killing him instantly and severely wounding his accomplices.

The 9.30 pm explosion which was had more than five Km away happened along the busy kismayu road, only some 200 meters from the spot where three KDF soldiers were shot dead by suspected Al Shabaab operatives last November.

Confirming the incident NEP Deputy PPO Noor Gabow said the terrorists were targeting military and police vehicles which ply the route when travelling to Dadaab, Wajir, Mandera and Kismayu.

"We have launched a manhunt for the accomplices of the killed man who we believe managed to get away and receiving treatment at private location," said Gabow.

This comes only a day after locals leaders and business men led by Garissa senator Yussuf Haji initiated efforts to form vigilante groups to compliment the efforts of security officers in restore sanity in the insecurity hit town.

In late February this year, at least this terror suspects were killed as they tried to plant an improvised explosive device at the Garissa primary school grounds where the then Narc Kenya presidential candidate Martha Karua was scheduled to address a rally.

Police managed to recover two guns, one which had earlier been stolen from a slain police officer who was killed at the Garissa market. Garissa town has borne brunt of retaliatory attacks by al shabaab since kenya troops crossed over into Somalia in late 2011 following a series of attacks and kidnappings in the country. Since then over 300 people have lost their lives including police officers, military officers, government officials and civilians have been killed .

from allAfrica/the STAR
By Stephen Astariko, 31 May 2013

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Bomb explosion kills 2 suspected terrorists in Kenya

GARISSA, Kenya, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- At least two suspected terrorists died early Thursday when bombs they were carrying exploded in a refugee camp in northern Kenya.
Charlton Mureithi, a regional police commander, confirmed the incident at the Hagdera refugee camp in Dadaab by telephone, saying the suspects were believed to be suicide bombers.

"We have not established what their mission was at the camp. Their bodies were badly damaged and we suspect they were carrying IEDs (improvised explosive devices), which went off and exploded on them," Mureithi said.

He said he had ordered an investigation into the attack, which came as political parties held their primaries Thursday to nominate candidates for the March 4 general elections.

Residents told Xinhua on Thursday they thought the suspected suicide bombers might have been targeting passersby and security officers who normally patrol the areas.

The latest incident comes amid rising fears among communities along the porous border with Somalia. Islamist groups fleeing a military assault in the south of the Horn of Africa nation have been looking to carry out revenge attacks on civilians across the border in Kenya.

Kenya blames Al-Shabaab for the wave of recent bomb and grenade attacks particularly in northern Kenya.

The East African nation has been involved in efforts to bring stability and peace to Somalia, its northern neighbor, with Kenyan troops serving in the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Along with government and allied forces, AMISOM has been liberating large parts of Somalia from the control of Al-Shabaab militants, as well as supporting progress on its political front.

from XINHUA
2013-01-17 16:15:18

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Military rescues kidnapped aid workers in Somalia

NAIROBI, Jul 2 – Four foreign aid workers kidnapped in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp were released overnight in southern Somalia after a short gunfight, and were safe with the Kenyan army, officials said Monday.

“They are safe in our hands, they have been freed,” Kenyan army spokesman Cyrus Oguna told AFP, adding that the two men and two women seized on Friday were released after a joint operation of Kenyan and Somali troops.

“They were released in a joint force of Somali and Kenyan forces, during which one of the kidnappers was killed.”

The four aid workers, employed by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), come from Canada, Norway, a dual national from Canada and Pakistan, and the Philippines.

One has a bullet wound to the leg but they are otherwise unharmed.

“They are exhausted, they have walked far and have blisters, and one of the aid workers was shot in the leg, but otherwise they are in good health,” Oguna said, adding they were now in the southern Somali border town of Dhobley.

“They are receiving medical attention at our base while they await transfer back to Kenya,” Oguna added.

Mohamed Dini Adan, the Somali military commander in Dhobley, said the army had stopped the “kidnappers who were trying to hide and sneak past the army.”

A Kenyan driver was killed and two others were wounded during Friday’s attack.

The kidnapping was the latest in a series of attacks in Dadaab, where gunmen last October seized two Spaniards working for Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). They are still being held hostage in Somalia.

Kenya, which invaded southern Somalia in October to attack Al-Qaeda linked Islamist insurgents, has troops some 120 kilometres (75 miles) deep into Somalia. However, the forces control only pockets of the vast territory.

The aid workers’ vehicle, which the gunmen stole after killing the driver, was found abandoned a few hours after the attack.

NRC is working to support some 465,000 inhabitants in the Dadaab complex, which constitutes Kenya’s third-biggest town in terms of population.

The abduction of the Spaniards was one of the incidents that spurred Kenya to send troops and tanks into Somalia to fight the Shabaab insurgents Nairobi blames for abductions and for cross-border raids.

However, Kenya has also voiced concern that Dadaab too poses a security threat, and has blocked registration of new refugees to the camp.

The Shabaab still control large parts of southern Somalia, despite recent losses to African Union troops, government forces and Ethiopian soldiers, who have wrested several key bases from the insurgents.

from capitalfm.co.ke
Posted by ROB JILLO and AFP on July 2, 2012 

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Six injured as grenade attacks rock northern Kenya

Map of Garissa district in Kenya (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

GARISSA, Kenya, May 26 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were injured in two simultaneous grenade attacks suspected to have been carried out by Somali Al-Shabaab in two border districts in Kenya' s northern region bordering the war-ravaged Somalia.

The attacks in Ifo 1 in Dadaab refugee complex in Garissa County and a hotel in Wajir town occurred less than ten minutes of each at 1730 GMT and 1740 GMT local time.

In the Ifo attack assailants numbering five have hurled a hand grenade into a construction site in private primary school benefiting refugees children targeting non-Somali masonries, who were at the time rest inside one of the classes under constructions.

The twin attacks which has similar hallmarks, with previous attacks in the region which was claimed by the group, has shocked residents and troubled the Kenya security machineries which is claiming a victory against Al-Shabaab in neighboring Somalia after the fall of the Afgooye to allied soldiers two days ago, a town believed to be the last foothold of the resistant group.

Regional police commander Leo Nyongesa confirmed that suspected members of the militant group hurled two grenades at Horseed primary school in Ifo, one of the three refugee camps in Northern Kenya, injuring five laborers who were at the time preparing supper in one of the classes under constructions.

"Assailants of unknown number have thrown two hand grenades into the primary school run by African Development Emergency Organization (ADEO) funded by UNHCR, injuring five masonries who were involved in the construction work," he told Xinhua by telephone.

Nyongesa said the five casualties were rushed to Ifo main hospital for treatment, noting that two of the five sustained heavy injuries while the three others escaped with minor injuries.

The school Principal Farah Gabay told Xinhua that the injured persons were all non-Somali construction laborious from other parts of the country working with a local construction company called Modogashe constructions limited.

He said the impact of the blast destroyed one of the eight classes under construction.

According to an eye witness, two people threw the hand grenade to the five who were busy finishing the day's work on Saturday night.

"We only saw two people running as they headed towards the nearby houses, this was immediately after the blast, on reaching there we saw the five wailing in pain as they bled profusely and a few meters from where they were lay the grenade," a refugee at the Ifo camp who did not want to be named told Xinhua.

In the Wajir attack, suspect Al-Shabaab assailant hurled a hand grenade into a popular Dubai Lodge in the main street of the town and injured seriously a man who was a reveler at the hotel.

Eye witnesses said those behind the attack were not sure of themselves and threw it cowardly and therefore did not hit their targets which was a big crowd that was busy watching the 7 p.m. news bulletin.

"They were aiming at a big crowd which was busy watching the 7 p.m. live bulletin, we only heard a commotion of people running outside immediately after the incident," said one of the lucky survivors who was also in the hotel.

Nyongesa who confirmed the two incidents said that investigations have been launched and promised to get to the bottom of the two incidents.

Nyongesa said four people believed to those behind the soaring incidents of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and hand grenades attacks in the region and mainly in the refugee complex, were arrested by the police on Saturday.

He said the suspects are helping the security personnel in unravel the mastermind and break into the Al-Shabaab operative cells.

The East African nation has also been plagued by a spate of grenade and landmine attacks in its northern region where the insurgents have killed more than 15 police officers and over 30 civilians.

Since the Kenya military incursion into Somalia several attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the militant group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.

Kenya blames the group for a string of attacks and kidnappings in Kenya, including those of four Europeans. The Kenyan government says the kidnappings threaten tourism, a key source of revenue for the country.

Somalia has been unfortunate for at least two decades during which time warlords and all other merchants of violence have devastated the country's human existence.

Al-Shabaab has been fighting since 2008 to topple Somalia's weak central government. The group has ties to al Qaida, and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

Kenya accuses the al Qaida-linked group, which controls much of central and southern Somalia, of a spate of abductions from its territory-charges denied by the militants.

Al-Shabaab has said it views the presence of Kenyan troops in southern Somalia as an act of war.

from XINHUA
Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Kenya: One Dead in Mombasa Restaurant Grenade Attack

Mombasa — A woman has died after a grenade attack in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, police said Wednesday, a day after armed men opened fire and threw explosives into into a restaurant.
"We lost one of the victims, a lady who was a security guard at the club, she died in hospital," regional police chief Aggrey Adoli said.

Three others wounded in the attack are still in hospital, one in a serious condition, following the attack by gunmen late Tuesday.

One gunman opened fire when guards at the restaurant prevented him and two accomplices from entering the Bella Vista restaurant, before the attackers hurled two grenades and fled, Adoli added.

One of the grenades exploded near the entrance to the restaurant and the other near a car parked outside.
"I was having a drink nearby and then I saw people running after a loud blast," said witness Oscar Ndambuki, speaking shortly after the attack.

The restaurant sits on one of the most popular avenues in Mombasa and is a popular gathering spot mainly for domestic tourists.

 There was no immediate information on who was behind the attack.
Since Kenya sent tanks and troops into Somalia late last year, a whole series of grenade attacks and explosions have taken place, both in Nairobi and in northern towns and camps housing Somali refugees close to the border.

Targets have ranged from police vehicles to local bars to churches. The Kenyan authorities often blame such attacks on Somalia's Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab rebels.

Last month the hardline Shabaab warned Kenya of retribution and revenge attacks for joining the African Union force battling the insurgents.

Earlier on Tuesday, a policeman was killed and two others seriously wounded when a landmine exploded beneath their vehicle as they escorted aid workers near the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya.

from allAfrica

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Kenyan police killed, three others injured as explosion rocks northern region

GARISSA, Kenya, May 15 (Xinhua) -- A Kenyan police officer was killed and three of his colleagues were seriously injured early on Tuesday in an explosion believed to have been planted by suspected militia group Al-Shabaab in northern region.

The deadly explosive in sprawling Dagahley refugee camp, one of the three refugee camps in Dadaab refugee complex pushes the death toll to 15 of Kenya security personnel killed in such explosive by suspected sympathizers of the Somali group since the country neigbouring to Somali sent it's military to the war-torn country to root out the Islamist.

The officers who were from Administration Police wing were returning from patrol in outskirt of the refugee camp, when their police land rover over run an explosive device planted on the road at around midday. Regional police commander, Leo Nyongesa said the four Administration Police officers were returning from their normal morning patrol before the vehicle they were travelling in hit an Improvised Explosive Device which was hidden on the sandy road to their camp.

"One of the officers who was of the rank of a Constable died on the spot of his injuries, while three of his colleagues who were in the same vehicle were seriously injured and they were rushed to Dadaab district hospital for treatment," Nyongesa told Xinhua by telephone.

The deadly explosive which killed the driver of the vehicle come barely three days after police detected similar explosives which was planted on the main roads linking the three refugee camps in Dadaab.

"The officers were just returning from a normal security patrol in the camps to be relieved in the afternoon shift by their colleagues, but unfortunately some few meters from their camp they were caught in the explosion that has also extensively damaged the vehicle," he said.

Kenya authority has been blaming the Somali militants, Al Qaeda- linked group of masterminding series of kidnappings of foreign aid workers in Northern region breeding into its incursion into Somalia last year.

The regional police chief said that there were plans to airlift the seriously injured officers who include a senior sergeant who was heading the patrol to Nairobi force memorial for specialist treatment.

Nyongesa said preliminary investigations by police indicates that there are links between the Tuesday's deadly explosive and a series of IEDs detected by explosives experts on the main roads between the refugee camps last week.

"We suspect that the criminals who had been planting Improvised Explosive Devices that have been discovered by our security personnel before causing any harm to our people and officers are the same people who had planted today's dead device," Nyongesa said.

The East African nation a has also been plagued by a spate of grenade and landmine attacks in its northern region where the insurgents have killed more than 15 police officers and over 30 civilians.

Since the Kenya military incursion into Somalia several attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.

Nyongesa said extra security personnel were deployed in Dagahley refugee camp to pursue those behind the planting of the IEDs in the area, who they believed are hiding in the camps.

"We appeal to peace loving Kenyans and refugees hosted in our country to help security agencies in the area by providing crucial information on suspected criminal elements bent on harming others, " he said.

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