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Kenyan cops detain 4; possible terrorism links
23/05/2003 11:34 - (SA)
Nairobi - Kenyan police conducting a nationwide sweep for people with possible links to terrorism have detained for questioning four people in the port city of Mombasa, a top investigator said on Friday.
"We have arrested four people on suspicion that they have terrorism links and a team of investigators is currently questioning them," Coast Provincial Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Dida Golicha said.
Golicha said the detained suspects, all carrying Kenyan identification papers, were picked up on different days since Monday at different points in Mombasa after cues from police "intelligence" reports.
"We are questioning them to find out if they are linked to acts of terrorism locally and internationally. We shall also probe if they are true Kenyan nationals," Golicha said.
"We shall definitely release any of them, after proving that the evidence we have does not support his or her, continued detention," Golicha added.
Kenya's national security minister Chris Murungaru warned last week that possible terrorist attacks in Kenya were in the works, an alarm that prompted US and Britain to renew travel warnings to Kenya, including suspending British Airways flights to and from Nairobi.
Belgium, Canada, Denmark and Germany have also warned their nationals not to travel to east Africa, while Egypt called off a trade fair set to be held in Nairobi on Friday, citing security concerns.
US ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson also said on Wednesday that Kenyans were involved in planning and executing terrorism activities in the country, notably accomodating extremists.
In deadly attacks, apparently targeting US and Israeli interests in Kenya and blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, terrorists attacked the US embassy in Nairobi and the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam in August 1998, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Last November, three suicide bombers attacked an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, killing 12 Kenyans and three Israelis.
The same day another group of terrorists fired a shoulder-launched missile, narrowly missing an Israeli passenger jet with more than 250 tourists on board, shortly after it took off from Mombasa airport. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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