Photographer: Ivan Lieman/AFP via Getty Images - Men suspected of being members of Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents sit before their trial at the Shanzu Law courts in the Shimo La Tewa prison in Mombasa on Feb. 3. In February, police arrested 200 suspected rebels at a Mombasa mosque and said they had recovered weapons
By Joseph Burite
Monday, November 17, 2014
At least one person was killed after Kenyan police raided three mosques in Mombasa, the latest violence in the port city where the government is cracking down on suspected Islamist militants.
Police undertook the raids to “smoke out radical youths,” police commander Robert Kitur said by phone from the city. He declined to comment on the number of arrests or casualties. Capital FM, a Nairobi-based broadcaster, reported on its Twitter account one death during raids on Mombasa’s Shuhada and Sakina mosques, without saying where it got the information.
Mombasa, home to East Africa’s largest port, sees periodic raids on mosques, which authorities accuse of recruiting and training youths for militant groups. In February, police arrested 200 suspected rebels at a Mombasa mosque and said they had recovered weapons.
Kenya has faced increasing attacks by Islamic militants since sending its troops into Somalia in October 2011 to fight al-Shabaab insurgents who are trying to overthrow the government there and impose a strict version of Shariah, or Islamic law.
Muslim preachers in Mombasa have been the targets in a wave of attacks since 2012. On Nov. 4, gunmen killed moderate cleric Sheikh Salim Bakari Mwarangi, a supporter of government efforts to fight radicalism. In April, armed men murdered Sheikh Abubaker Shariff, known as Makaburi, who was on a United Nations list of individuals subject to travel bans, asset freezes and targeted embargoes for recruiting young Kenyans for violent activity in neighboring Somalia.
Haki Africa, a Mombasa-based human rights group, described today’s raids as counter-productive. Such moves only fuel radicalization, Executive Director Hussein Khalid said in an interview in the city.
Source: Bloomberg