Kenya police kill two terror suspects in Mombasa
Kenyan paramilitary police walk past burning tyres in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa during a second day of clashes after the killing of an extremist cleric linked to Al-Qaeda-allied Shabaab militants on August 28, 2012. Hundreds of angry youths have reportedly thrown stones, damaged cars after amassing in support of slain preacher Aboud Rogo Mohammed near the centre of Mombasa. The cleric, who was shot dead on August 27, 2012 by “unknown people,” according to the police, was on US and UN sanctions lists for allegedly supporting the Shebab, including through recruitment and fundraising. He was driving with his wife and children when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle, leaving it riddled with bullets.
Kenya police shot dead on Sunday morning two terror suspects feared to be plotting attacks in the country’s popular coastal tourist city Mombasa.
Shooting broke out when police raided a house in the Majengo suburbs of Mombasa, Kenya's main port, after receiving a tip from a suspect arrested on Saturday, reported Agence France-Presse.
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"We killed one suspect in the house and the one we were holding when he tried to run away," deputy regional police chief John Gachomo told reporters, according to AFP, adding that officers were still searching for several other suspects who had fled the scene.
Reuters reported that one of the suspects killed was a Muslim cleric suspected of having ties to Somalia's al Shabaab militants. Police said a man arrested on Saturday carrying grenades on a bus to Mombasa had led them to the house. He was the second suspect killed by gunfire during the raid.
Angry residents of the Majengo suburbs have accused the anti-terror police of extrajudicial killing, according to PressTV.
"I strongly condemn what the police did to one of our neighbors who was seriously beaten and tortured before he was killed,” said Salim Mohamed, a resident of Majengo.
Kenya has heightened its security on its border with Somalia because of a series of grenade attacks that have hit the African country over the past months that are being blamed on revenge-seeking militant groups from the neighboring country.
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