[dehai-news] (New York Times) Fatal Attacks Tied to Raid by Kenya

From: Biniam Tekle <biniamt_at_dehai.org_at_dehai.org>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:00:31 -0500

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/world/africa/fatal-attacks-in-kenya-tied-to-incursion-into-somalia.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss November 24, 2011
 Fatal Attacks Tied to Raid by Kenya By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/jeffrey_gettleman/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

NAIROBI, Kenya — At least four people, three of them civilians, were killed Thursday in a wave of attacks in northern Kenya that the authorities believe were connected to the country’s recent incursion into Somalia<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/somalia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> .

The first attack happened around dawn near Mandera, a remote outpost that straddles the Kenya-Somalia border. A large military truck carrying several soldiers rolled over a land mine, which killed one soldier and seriously wounded five others, Kenyan officials said. The soldiers were patrolling the outskirts of Mandera, which has served as an entry point for hundreds of Kenyan soldiers to reach Somalia.

Later on Thursday, around 7:30 p.m., a hotel and a shopping center in the northern Kenyan town of Garissa were attacked with hand grenades. Witnesses said that at least three people were killed and six were wounded. The locations were known gathering places for Kenyans from other parts of the country, and many people say tensions are rising between Somalis and other ethnic groups inside Kenya.

In October, Kenya sent columns of heavily armed troops, backed by artillery, tanks, fighter jets and warships, into southern Somalia. Kenyan officials initially said they were chasing Somali kidnappers but later said they had entered Somalia to fight against the Shabab<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/al-shabab/index.html?inline=nyt-org> militant
group and carve out a buffer zone along the border.

Kenyan officials have intimated that they may soon join the large African Union<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/african_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org> peacekeeping
force in Somalia to help rid the country of the Shabab, which have slaughtered countless civilians in their quest to turn Somalia into a strict Islamist state.

There have been several deadly attacks in Kenya since the troops were sent to Somalia, but most terrorism experts believe the culprits are not Shabab operatives sent from Somalia but more likely Shabab sympathizers inside Kenya.

Kenyan security services responded swiftly to the attacks on Thursday, rounding up hundreds of ethnic Somalis in Mandera, spreading fear and resentment among the town’s residents.

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