Tanzanian police arrest Nairobi blast suspect

By Cyrus Ombati and Agencies

Tanzanian police are holding a man hunted by Kenyan police following a blast in Nairobi’s Moi Avenue that killed one person and injured more than 30.

According to Reuters, police in Tanzania are holding a man believed to be Emrah Erdogan, a German national of Turkish origin who is also known as Salahuddin al-Kurdi.

Kenyan police last month released a photo of Erdogan who allegedly entered the country from Somalia in May.

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Police issued the photograph of Erdogan after a bomb tore through a trading centre in the heart of Nairobi on May 28, killing one person and wounded more than 30.

According to political scientist Dirk Baehr and German media, Erdogan travelled to Waziristan in northwest Pakistan in early 2010 and joined a militant Islamist group.

He then went to Somalia in 2011 and was suspected of joining up with the al Qaeda-linked militant group Al Shabaab.

"The German suspect is in police custody in Dar es Salaam in relation with terrorism investigations. He is being questioned by the police as we speak to get a written statement from him," a Tanzanian police source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters.

Two more Tanzanian police sources, who also declined to be identified, confirmed the arrest.

The Tanzania Police Force declined to give any official comment.

Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in October to fight al Shabaab. Since then, there have been a string of grenade and bomb attacks in the capital Nairobi, Mombasa and the north of the country near the border with Somalia.

Earlier this month, the Ugandan police said they too were hunting for Erdogan and another German terrorism suspect as they believed they had sneaked across the border from Kenya.

Additional report-Reuters