New front opened in war on terror
Ugandan police officers display an explosive device which was found at a club in Kampala on July 13, 2010. The unexploded suicide vest was linked to the bombings that killed 76 people. Photo/AFP
What you need to know:
Major terror strikes in Kenya
November 28, 2002: Terrorists bombed Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Mombasa, killing 15 people, 12 of them Kenyans. A twin attack on an airliner failed.
August 7, 1998: Terrorist bomb the US embassy in Nairobi, killing 252 people. Terror mastermind Fazul Mohammed was blamed for the attacks and is believed to have taken the leadership of Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia.
The war against terrorism in the region is set to take a new dimension with a new US-led initiative targeting al Qaeda operatives in war-torn Somalia.
According to the New York Times, the Obama administration approved the new strategy recently. This comes just after last month’s bombings in Kampala in which 76 people died.
The Somalia-based al Shabaab, which boasts links with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist group, claimed responsibility. The paper said the US has significantly increased military and intelligence operations in areas where al Qaeda is active.
The new strategy includes pursuing terrorists with drones, commando teams, paying spies and training local operatives to track them down.
“None of the new steps undertaken by the US have been publicly acknowledged,” the paper said.
Last week, the US State Department welcomed efforts by Kenya to fight terrorism, saying the country had developed a “heightened recognition” of its vulnerability to attacks and was taking steps to prevent them.
“Whereas Kenyans have traditionally perceived terrorism as primarily a ‘foreign’ problem, (they) came to recognise that their own country and society were threatened,” the State Department said in a new annual report on international terrorism.
Revelations by suspects behind last month’s attack in Kampala that they had undergone training in Somalia has raised fears that an al Qaeda-trained terror cell is active in Kenya and neighbouring countries.
The suspects are said to have been behind numerous foiled attacks targeting western interests in the country.
Numerous attacks foiled
The cell is said to be composed of Kenyans and nationals from neighbouring countries under terror mastermind Abdalla Fazul, who is linked to two attacks in Kenya.
Fazul has been indicted over the 1998 August 7 terrorist attack against the US embassy in Nairobi and bombing of the Israel-owned Paradise hotel in Kikambala, Kilifi District.
Most members of the new terror cell are said to have fled Somalia in 2006 when Ethiopia attacked the war-torn country to prop up the beleaguered transitional government.
Kenya Police Anti-Terrorism Unit boss Nicholas Kamwende recently confirmed that numerous terror attacks had been foiled but refused to give details.
Following the Kampala attack, Kenya security agencies have intensified surveillance and a crackdown against suspected terrorists. So far, they have arrested eight people in connection with the Kampala attack.
