Man seized over Nairobi bomb attack
Photo |COURTESY| AFRICA REVIEW
Kenya Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe displays the photograph of Emrah Erdogan, the suspect believed to be behind the recent bomb attack in Nairobi on May 28, 2012. The country is on high alert following threats of more attacks by Somali terror group Al-Shabaab.
A man suspected to have been behind the recent bomb attack in Nairobi has been arrested in Tanzania.
Emrah Erdogan, a German of Turkish origin who police have linked to the May 28 terrorist attack at Assanands House, was arrested on Tuesday.
The suspect is also known as Salahuddin al-Kurdi.
A police officer told the Nation that they had been contacted by their Tanzanian counterparts over the development.
Police said they were trailing four terror suspects, among them Erdogan, before the May 28 explosion in Nairobi in which one person was killed and 36 others injured.
Among suspects
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said Erdogan, believed to have entered Kenya through Garissa from Somalia on May 3, was among the four suspects.
A device was reportedly placed in a stall by a man posing as a customer.
According to political scientist Dirk Baehr and German media, Erdogan travelled to Waziristan in northwest Pakistan in early 2010 and joined a militant Islamist group.
He then went to Somalia in 2011 and reportedly joined al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab terror group.
The ranks of Al-Shabaab include foreign fighters from Kenya, Europe, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa.
Since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October to pursue Al-Shabaab militants, there have been a string of grenade and bomb attacks in Nairobi and northern parts of the country.
