Suspected terrorist shot dead in Eastleigh

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI, KENYA: A man believed to be the terrorist who lobbed a grenade at pedestrians injuring four people last Sunday has been shot dead by police in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area.

The man was killed by officers from Anti-Terror Police Unit in an operation Tuesday morning.

A pistol with unknown number of bullets was recovered from his house in Section Three.

Nairobi Area head of police Benson Kibui said they had been tipped off that the man was hiding in the house before they staged the raid.

“He is the one who threw the grenade that injured innocent people on Sunday night. We are still searching his house,” he said on the phone.

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The number of those who were injured in the grenade attack in Nairobi’s Majengo area rose to four.

This was after a fourth female victim was found admitted at a local hospital where she had rushed moments after the attack on Sunday at about 8.30 pm.

Other victims were attended at the Kenyatta National Hospital and discharged, officials said.

Head of bomb disposal unit Eliud Langat said preliminary findings show the grenade that was used in the attack was manufactured in Russia.

He added they are “analyzing the debris collected from the scene of the attack to establish if they are linked to the past ones used in similar incidents.”

“We have also established that the blast that occurred in Likoni, Mombasa was caused by a similar grenade, which is an indication that the same group was behind it,” said Langat.

The attackers targeted pedestrians and threw the grenade at them injuring the victims. Police arrived at the scene moments later and sealed it off.

Nairobi and Mombasa have been quiet for almost six months and the Sunday attacks are the latest in a string of grenade blasts or shootings to have hit Kenya, although it was not immediately clear if the two attacks were connected.

Police have previously blamed similar grenade attacks on supporters or members of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab insurgents.

Kenyan troops invaded southern Somalia in 2011 to attack Al Shabaab bases, and have now joined an African Union force to battle the extremists there.

Kenya’s invasion however sparked an angry reaction and warnings of revenge from the Islamists.