Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Aweys Osman Yusuf
26 January 2007
Mogadishu — Kenyan police have incarcerated at least five Islamists, believed to have fled Somalia, on the Kenyan border with Somalia. The five that included US and French nationals of Somali origin were armed with AK 47 rifles when they were caught on Thursday.
According to Kenyan press, a joint security force arrested the men while crossing the Kenyan coastal town of Lamu on late Thursday.
"We formed a joint force of regular police, General Service Unit and the army and we confronted them. They put up no resistance as they were outnumbered," said a Kenyan official who pleaded anonymity.
The suspects included two with Syrian passports and another with Tunisian passport.
The arrest comes as Kenyan security forces stepped up tightening the security on the border along with Somalia.
Early January, the government revealed that its forces supported by the Ethiopian troops in the country seized Raskamboni, the last Islamist stronghold in southern Somalia.
This brings to 18 the number of Islamists arrested in the area carrying passports of countries outside the Horn of African region.
Kenyan security forces on Saturday detained 13 foreigners carrying American, British and Arabian Gulf passports at Kiunga as they attempted to cross the border from Somalia.
The US AC 130 gunship struck southern Somalia twice, trying to kill al-Qaeda operatives in the country.
The US believes al-Qaeda militants linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam have taken refuge in Somalia.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Shabelle Media Network. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
