| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Horn |
| KenyaÂ’s police arrest six radical youths |
| 2014-01-19 |
| Kenyan police on Friday arrested six radical Muslim youths who attempted to cross into Somalia to join Al-Shabaab terror group through in Kiunga, 15 km from the Kenyan border with Somalia. Lamu East police commander Samson Obara said detectives working on intelligence reports intercepted a passenger bus they had boarded from the coastal city of Mombasa city to Lamu. He said they planned to sneak into the Horn of Africa nation through Kiunga border to join the militant group which is allied to Al-Qaida network. “Our officers working on information waylaid a bus at Mararani area near Kenya-Somalia border in Kiunga. We are still interrogating them before preferring charges,” Obara told Xinhua on Friday. The local police commander said the youths aged between 16 and 18 years claim they were going fishing in Somalia. The six Faraj Fahim Swaleh, Twafiq Swaleh, Nabil Mohammed Lali, Fara Abdi Kassim and Mohammed Abdalla are being held at Lamu police station. Police said the six are among foreigners who have joined the Al- Shabaab to undergo military training to carry out offensives inside Somalia and in Kenya. Intelligence agents said they are trained how to assemble and detonate bombs, use weapons, and carry out terrorist strikes. Obara said the youths are latest batch of extremist youths joining the rag tag Al-Shabaab terror group blamed plotting attacks in country since the incursion of Kenya troops in Somalia in 2011. The youth were on Friday handed over to a team of anti terrorism police officers for further grilling. The detectives confiscated their mobile phones to assist in apprehending key Al- Shabaab recruiters in the country. “We will contact mobile phone companies to establish their communication to establish the wide network of Al-Shabaab recruitment,” Obara said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |