Al-Shabaab warns of more attacks in Kenya
Bomb expert with sniffer dog piecing up on some materials at the scene of the explosion where Christians were holding a crusade in Mtwapa where one person died and twenty six got serious injuries in this picture taken on April 1, 2012. Photo/LABAN WALLOGA
Al-Shabaab has warned that it will continue attacking Kenyan cities until the country’s forces leave Somalia.
This comes a day after some unknown people launched two attacks in Mombasa in which one person was killed and 30 others injured.
Without making direct reference to the grenade attacks at a prayer rally in Mtwapa and a restaurant near the Mombasa Municipal Stadium, the militant group warned that Kenyan cities would continue to be insecure for as long as the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) remained in Somalia.
“The Kenyan public must be aware that the more Kenyan troops continue to persecute innocent Muslims of Somalia, the less secure Kenyan cities will be; and the more oppression the Muslims of Somalia feel, the more constricted Kenyan life will be,” the militants warned in a statement posted on their twitter account.
“Such is the law of retribution. Your security depends on our security. It is a long, protracted war, and Kenyans must neither harbour a reason for optimism nor hope for triumph,” the statement added.
The group said the insecurity in Kenyan towns showed how Kenya’s “misguided policies” place foreign interests above its national interests and the security of Western nations above that of its citizens, thereby waste the lives of its people and its resources for no real gain.
Separately, the Human Rights Watch claimed the militants still command “a significant presence” in parts of southern Somalia that Kenya claims to control.
“Recurrent clashes between Al-Shabaab fighters and Kenyan forces have occurred in Lower Juba, ‘the heart of the Kenyan-controlled zone’,” it claimed.
But KDF spokesman, Colonel Cyrus Oguna, dismissed the claims, saying Kenyan troops remained in control of huge parts of Somalia.
“What they are saying is not true. The KDF is in control of many parts of Somalia but because of the vast expanse we control, there are pockets of Al-Shabaab, one, two or three, who occasionally sneak back and conduct isolated attacks before running away,” he said.
