November 29, 2005
by Laura Mansfield
Did Kenyan police stop a group of shoe bombers planning to down a commercial flight?
The Eastern African Standard in Nairobi is reporting the arrest of three men at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi last week. The men were reportedly carrying explosives and had shoes that were wired and contained switches and dry cell batteries.
Kenyan police arrest three Ethiopian "suicide bombers"
Text of report by Cyrus Ombati entitled "Three suspects held with explosives, wired shoes" published by Kenyan newspaper The Standard website on 29 November
Police in Nairobi are holding three terror suspects allegedly found in possession of explosives.
The three Ethiopians were arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (Nairobi) last Tuesday (22 November) on arrival from Addis Ababa. Detectives said they were headed for South Africa.
The detectives were investigating the three, who also had shoes that had switches and dry cells. "We suspect they are suicide bombers and we are interrogating them to establish their motive for having such shoes," said a policeman.
The first suspect was seized at the screening point at the airport before his suspected accomplices were also caught. A team of detectives sent to Ethiopia to investigate the wired shoes, switches and dry cells returned at the weekend. They established that a number of people from the suspects' locality had similar shoes but insisted on interrogating the three. The first suspect was arrested on Tuesday morning while the other two were arrested on Thursday.
Police said yesterday that they expect to make more arrests. Last month, four men were picked in (Nairobi's) Eastleigh estate for allegedly funding terror activities. Three of the suspects operated a forex bureau while the fourth was a businessman importing second-hand goods from Dubai.
Anti-terror police boss Ireri Kamwende said they were still investigating.
The four had Kenyan passports and were later released without charges after several Muslim groups protested at their arrests.
Kenya has been the target of terror attacks before. The US Embassy in Nairobi was attacked in 1998 in a suicide car bombing by Al Qaeda operatives.
In 2002, two SAM-7 missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter airliner full of tourists in an attack that was apparently supposed to coincide with the suicide bombing of a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. Al Qaeda took credit for both attacks.
--------------------------------------
For more translations and news on terrorism, visit http://www.lauramansfield.com