Tag: al Shabaab

Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack on a bus on Kenya’s northern coast that killed seven.

Gunmen blocked the bus with their car late on Friday and sprayed it with bullets. They also attacked two lorries carrying mangos near Witu, a town in Lamu County which borders Somalia.

“The attack was in response to Kenya’s claim that it deployed more troops in the coast and thus tightened security,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab’s military operations told Reuters.

“Kenya also lied by saying it destroyed al Shabaab bases there – that is propaganda.”

Al Shabaab has vowed to carry out a campaign of attacks to punish Kenya for sending its troops into Somalia, where Kenyan soldiers are fighting the militants as part of an African Union peacekeeping force.

Gunmen have killed about 100 people on Kenya’s coast since mid-June. Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks but the government, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, has suggested local politicians were behind the incidents.

Kenya Red Cross, which has set up camps for residents who have fled the area, said on its Twitter account that seven people were killed in the attacks.

… President safe

Islamist militants attacked Somalia’s presidential compound on Tuesday with a car bomb and gunmen broke through a perimeter wall but were repulsed by security forces, and the president was not there at the time, the interior ministry said.

Up to five members of the al Shabaab Islamist group, which claimed responsibility, were killed, Interior Minister Abdullahi Godah Barre told Reuters.

Three militants were confirmed dead and one or two more were believed to have died in the car blast.

The assault was the most dramatic in a string of attacks in the capital Mogadishu by al Shabaab since it launched a campaign during the current Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

But President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was not there at the time as he was at another location attending an iftar, the meal to break the Ramadan fast after sunset.

“I can assure you the president is not hurt and as a matter of fact he was not in the palace,” the minister said, adding the gunmen were repulsed in the car park near the prime minister’s offices and had not made it to the presidential quarters.

It was the second time since February that al Shabaab had attacked the sprawling compound, which includes the presidential buildings and other government offices. Officials said security had been tightened since then, including adding stronger gates.

Gunmen killed at least 29 people in raids on two separate areas on the Kenyan coast, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

The Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, last September, said it had staged an attack on Saturday evening in the coastal area.

Nine people lost their lives at the Hindi trading centre in Lamu county, near the scene of attacks in which 65 people were killed last month, Mwenda Njoka, the ministry’s spokesman told Reuters.

Another 20 people were killed in another attack in the Gamba area of neighbouring Tana River county. Both counties are situated north of the port of Mombasa.

“There were two attacks in Lamu and Tana River last night. In Lamu we have nine people dead and in Tana River we have 20. The number could rise,” Njoka said by telephone.

Officials said a group of 10-15 men struck at Hindi, situated 15 km (9 miles) from the town of Lamu, and close to the town of Mpeketoni, which was nearly destroyed in one of the attacks in June, at about 10 pm on Saturday.

“They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately,” Abdallah Shahasi, the area chief, told Reuters.

Al Shabaab said it had broken into the police station at Gamba and freed suspects from the detention cells.

A Kenyan police source corroborated that account. “They killed some of our colleagues and freed Muslim detainees. Some of those freed were linked to the Mpeketoni attacks two weeks ago.

“We still don’t know how many detainees were freed until we verify with registers at the station,” the police source who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

A Somali lawmaker and his bodyguard were killed in Mogadishu on Thursday when al Shabaab gunmen blocked their car and sprayed it with bullets, a fellow legislator said, the fifth such attack in as many days.

The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militants were pushed out of the capital by African peacekeeping forces in 2011 but it has since waged a bombing campaign to try to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of sharia law. Al Shabaab threatened to step up attacks during the Ramadan fasting month which began on Sunday.

“Our colleague legislator Mohamed Mohamud Hayd and his bodyguard died – another lawmaker and a secretary for the parliament were also injured in the exchange of fire,” lawmaker Dahir Amin Jesow told Reuters.

“The MP who died was a former admiral and a hardworking lawmaker who has been in parliament for over a decade. I understand the gunmen escaped – it is very unfortunate.”

Sheikh Abdiasis abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military affairs, pledged to continue killing Somali legislators “one by one.”

“The so-called lawmakers are the ones who brought the enemy Christians into our country. We shall continue killing the legislators in bundles,” Musab told Reuters, a reference to the support Mogadishu receives from Western governments and African Union members who have sent in troops to battle the rebels.

At least 48 people were killed and others wounded when more than two dozen unidentified gunmen attacked a coastal Kenyan town overnight, police and the Kenya Red Cross said on Monday.

The attackers targeted two hotels, a bank and a police station with guns and at least one explosive device on Sunday night.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police said the gunmen could have been Islamist militants or criminals.

The assault was the latest in a string of gun and bomb attacks that have hurt Kenya’s vital tourist business and which have been blamed on Somalia’s Al Shabaab militant group.

Western nations have issued travel warnings in the wake of the assaults.

Sunday’s toll is the highest since 67 people were killed in September’s attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall.

That raid was claimed by Al Shabaab, which said it want to force Kenya to withdraw troops from Somalia. Kenya has said it won’t.

“More bodies have been recovered and right now we are talking about 48 dead persons,” Leonard Omollo, Lamu County police commander, told Reuters on telephone.

“All the dead are men. There are no women or children, and this fairly complicates matters. We may not tell immediately whether the attacks were done by Al Shabaab, the MRC (Mombasa Republican Council) or just mere criminals,” Omollo said.

The MRC is an illegal movement that wants the coastal region to secede. It has not recently been linked to attacks of this scale. Since the Westgate attack, Al Shabaab had promised to strike again.

Al Qaeda-linked militants attacked Somalia’s parliament on Saturday, killing at least four people in a bomb and gun assault, the Islamist group and police said.

“A car bomb exploded at the gate of the parliament house – then it was followed by a suicide bomber explosion. So far we have confirmed four policemen dead,” a police colonel, Farah Hussein, told Reuters.

“The lawmakers and the other workers were rescued as soon as the car bomb exploded. But the terrorists are still firing from inside a mosque nearby,” he added.

A Reuters witness who saw four bodies on the ground and one wounded man fleeing the scene said the fighting was ongoing.

Al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-affiliated group that was pushed out of the capital about two years ago and has since waged a sustained guerrilla campaign, said it launched the attack.

“We are behind the suicide bombing, explosions and the fighting inside the so-called Somali parliament house, and still heavy fighting is going on inside,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, told Reuters.

Two explosions have struck the Gikomba market area of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, killing at least 10 people and injuring scores, officials say.

It is not clear what caused the blasts but Kenya has been hit by a spate of attacks in recent years.

They have mostly been blamed on the al-Shabab militants from neighbouring Somalia, the BBC reports.

Hundreds of British tourists have been evacuated from the coastal resort area of Mombasa amid warnings of an attack.

British tour companies have suspended flights to Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city.

The Kenyan National Disaster Operation Centre said the first explosion occurred in a minibus, the second in the large open-air Gikomba market.

Police officials told the Reuters news agency they suspected the blast had been caused by an improvised explosive device.

Pictures from the scene showed clothing blown onto telephone wires above. Fire engines and the Red Cross were at the scene tending the injured.

Hospital sources told the BBC at least 70 people had been wounded.

President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to fight “evil” terrorism following the attacks.

“All of us around the world must be united to ensure that we are able to fight this particular terror,” he said at a news conference.

Earlier this week, authorities tightened security at bus stations, requiring all passengers to be screened before boarding. They also ordered all vehicles to have clear glass windows.

The United States has received intelligence of a “specific terrorist threat” against churches and other places of worship in the Ugandan capital, its embassy there said.
A security message on the embassy’s website did not say who was planning the attack, but Somali Islamist militants have previously threatened, and struck, Uganda and other east African countries that have sent troops into Somalia, Reuters reports.
“The threat information indicates a group of attackers may be preparing to strike places of worship in Kampala, particularly churches, including some that may be frequented by expatriates, in May or June,” said the notice dated May 6.
Regional economies have been on a heightened state of alert since militants killed at least 67 people, including children, when they rampaged through an upscale Kenyan shopping mall in September 2013. Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group claimed responsibility.
Kenya has also suffered a string of gun and bomb attacks, most recently over the weekend in Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa. The government blamed them on al Shabaab and its sympathisers.