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Africa Horn
One killed, 15 hurt in grenade attack at Kenyan church
2012-04-30
As Walter Russell Mead notes, just another example of "the increasing polarization along AfricaÂ’s Christian-Muslim divide", though I'd call it a little more than a 'divide', I'd call it by its proper name, the "New(est) Christian-Muslim War in Africa".
NAIROBI: At least one person was killed when a grenade was thrown into a Nairobi church on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia to try to crush Islamist militants blamed for cross-border raids and kidnappings.

Nairobi has correctly blamed Al-Shabab militants, who formally merged with Al-Qaeda earlier this year for the surge in violence that has threatened tourism in east AfricaÂ’s biggest economy and wider regional destabilization.

Police said it was too early to say who was behind the blast at the GodÂ’s House of Miracle Church, made of corrugated iron sheets and located in a busy market and residential area known as Ngara a few km (miles) away from downtown Nairobi.
Way too early, of course, to know which group of crazed Islamic killers done it...
“Somebody must have come and lobbed a grenade into the church congregation that was by then going on,” Moses Ombati, the Nairobi deputy police chief, said at the church. “So far we have confirmed 16 (casualties), that is, one dead and 15 admitted to hospitals. Five are confirmed to be in critical condition.”

The blast resembled two separate attacks at different bus stations and a bar in the capital that killed a total of 10 people and wounded many more last month and in October, a week after Kenyan troops swept into southern Somalia.

“We have seen similar attacks before, where people throw grenades and run,” deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said. “These are not die-hards. They know they can safely throw a grenade and run away during the confusion, they know it will not kill (the attacker) and that they can get away without being seen.”

In late March, one person was killed when a grenade was hurled at an open-air Christian gathering near the port city of Mombasa, a major tourist destination. Minutes later a grenade went off at a bar near MombasaÂ’s main stadium but no casualties were reported.

A grenade explosion at a Nairobi bus station earlier in March killed at least nine people and wounded 40. Four people were arrested but later freed pending further investigation.

There have been similar attacks near the border with Somalia since KenyaÂ’s military incursion.

Al Shabab has not claimed responsibility for the various attacks but in a statement a month ago said KenyaÂ’s security depended on its military activities in Somalia.

“The more Kenyan troops continue to persecute innocent Muslims of Somalia, the less secure Kenyan cities will be; and the more oppression the Muslims of Somalia feel, the more constricted Kenyan life will be,” it said.
Posted by:Steve White

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