Six
sought in race to block Boko Haram style attack
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Updated 5 hrs 48 mins
ago
By STANDARD on SATURDAY
TEAM
Police are looking for
six Kenyans believed to be planning attacks on mosques in Nairobi, Mombasa, and
Garissa in an attempt to spark religious hatred.
The six include Ahmed
Iman Ali, Al Shabaab’s leader and co-ordinator for Kenya, and Abdikadir
‘Ikrima’ Mohammed, an Al-Qaeda commander of foreign fighters in Somalia. It is
not clear when and how the six entered the country from Somalia, where Al
Shabaab foreign fighters are on the run from African Union and Transitional
Federal Government forces.
“Their goal is to create religious conflict,”
a high-placed security source told The Standard On Saturday on condition of
anonymity. “After the Garissa attacks, they plan to attack mosques and burn
copies of the Quran.”
Security reports name the six Kenyans as Ali, Ikrima, Kahale Famau
Kahale (Abdulghafur Ahmed), Eric Achayo Oganda (Ibra), Juma Otit Ayub Were and
Athumani Ahmed. Security officials have released photographs and other personal
details to help identify the terror suspects.
Sources familiar with their alleged plot say the mosque attacks
are meant to seem like revenge for the killings of 17 people on July 1 in raids
on two churches in Garissa. Sources claim the terrorists believe conditions in
Kenya are ripe for religious and ethnic divisions.
“Some of the weaknesses they have identified include tribalism and
Kenyans’ apathy towards security machinery,” the report states.
Garissa attacks
The Garissa attacks, blamed on Al Shabaab, resembled those used by
Nigerian Islamic militant group Boko Haram. Members of the group have been
training in Somalia in recent months. Their attacks on religious sites in
Nigeria have led to Muslim-Christian conflicts that have claimed hundreds of
lives.
Last month, United States and United Kingdom security officials
raised concerns about new operational links between Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, and
Al Qaeda (in Yemen and the Maghreb). There are fears Kenya may see more attacks
by Boko Haram-trained Kenyan terrorists.
Meanwhile, the hunt for a British terror financier hiding in Kenya
took on new urgency in the week leading up to the anniversary of the first
attack to which she has been linked. Security personnel from at least three
countries this week scaled up the search for Samantha Lewthwaite amid fears of
an attack planned for today — the seventh anniversary of a 2005 bombing in
which her 19-year-old husband helped kill 52 people in London. The July 7
attack on the city’s transport system remains the worst ever to hit the UK.
Kenyan sympathisers helping keep her hidden responded to the new
hunt by claiming that Lewthwaite has fled to Somalia for a second time. “We
know she is safe back in Somalia,” the Al Shabaab affiliated Muslim Youth
Centre (MYC) wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening, just hours after President
Kibaki released a statement warning terrorists of all stripe: “We will hunt you
down. We will not relent in our pursuit or be intimidated.” The statement
accompanied changes in the leadership of the Provincial Administration and the
police in North Eastern and Coast regions.
The series of MYC tweets referred to ‘Dada Mzungu’, avoiding names
that Lewthwaite uses like Sherafiyah and Asmantara. But links provided led to a
blog posting that included a photo of the 28-year-old Lewthwaite. Seven
officers from the Scotland Yard Counter-Terrorism Command flew into the country
on Monday to join the hunt for the mother of three.
They joined officers from Kenya’s
Anti-Terrorism Police Unit and the US Central Intelligence Agency who have had
no luck picking up her trail. Meanwhile, the US Government has imposed
sanctions on six people linked to Islamist militants in Somalia. The list
includes three Kenyans — Aboud Rogo Mohammed, Abubaker Sharif Ahmed and Omar
Awadh Omar.
Rogo is a cleric blamed for radicalisation and recruitment of
non-Somali Africans. Ahmed is accused of hiring Kenyans for “action” in
Somalia. Both have been arrested and charged over past terror attacks, but have
not been convicted. Omar is awaiting trial in Uganda on charges of helping to
plan a 2010 terror attack in Kampala.
— Additional reporting by Joe Kiarie and Cyrus Ombati.
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