Explosion Rocks Nairobi
Signs Point to Terrorism
A mysterious explosion, which witnesses described as a bomb, rocked downtown Nairobi on Monday morning, killing one person, possibly the bomber, and wounding 31 others.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Witnesses said three men carrying a small bomb tried to squeeze onto a crowded bus headed toward the airport, but when they were pushed off by other passengers, the bomb exploded in one of the men’s hands.
Chunks of glass and pieces of a shredded Koran were scattered across the sidewalk in front of the bus stop, fueling fears that the bomber was an Islamist terrorist. The attack happened on Moi Avenue, one of the busiest streets in this capital, around 8:15 a.m. during the peak of the morning rush.
“I heard a big boom and looked up and saw all these little pieces of paper in the air,” said Cornelius Mogere, a security guard who works across the street. “Everybody started running — very, very fast.”
The blast comes at a jittery time for Kenya, where a quasi-religious street gang has beheaded several minibus drivers and killed at least eight policemen in the past month, while terrorism suspects from neighboring Somalia continue to be rounded up at the border.
The explosion was just around the corner from the former site of the American Embassy, which was leveled by a huge truck bomb in 1998 in a Qaeda strike that killed more than 200 people.
Still, Kenyan police officials were quick to play down rumors that blast on Monday was a terrorist attack.
“All this talk that this was a suicide bomb is pure speculation,” said Mohammed H. Ali, the commissioner of police. “There are no easy fixes here. We’re still investigating.”
All morning, men in white lab coats and white rubber gloves picked through the small pile of rubble in front of the bus stop. One investigator used a long wooden cane to knock down strips of clothing hanging from the trees. A mangled body, which witnesses said was the bomber, was sprawled in front of a small restaurant. Countless bits of paper, with Koranic verses printed on them in English and Arabic, were sprinkled across the sidewalk like confetti.
Traffic was snarled for hours as hundreds of soldiers and policemen sealed off the center of Nairobi. Police officials said that they were interviewing dozens of witnesses and that information regarding the incident would be released in the coming days.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/world/africa/12kenya.html
A mysterious explosion, which witnesses described as a bomb, rocked downtown Nairobi on Monday morning, killing one person, possibly the bomber, and wounding 31 others.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Witnesses said three men carrying a small bomb tried to squeeze onto a crowded bus headed toward the airport, but when they were pushed off by other passengers, the bomb exploded in one of the men’s hands.
Chunks of glass and pieces of a shredded Koran were scattered across the sidewalk in front of the bus stop, fueling fears that the bomber was an Islamist terrorist. The attack happened on Moi Avenue, one of the busiest streets in this capital, around 8:15 a.m. during the peak of the morning rush.
“I heard a big boom and looked up and saw all these little pieces of paper in the air,” said Cornelius Mogere, a security guard who works across the street. “Everybody started running — very, very fast.”
The blast comes at a jittery time for Kenya, where a quasi-religious street gang has beheaded several minibus drivers and killed at least eight policemen in the past month, while terrorism suspects from neighboring Somalia continue to be rounded up at the border.
The explosion was just around the corner from the former site of the American Embassy, which was leveled by a huge truck bomb in 1998 in a Qaeda strike that killed more than 200 people.
Still, Kenyan police officials were quick to play down rumors that blast on Monday was a terrorist attack.
“All this talk that this was a suicide bomb is pure speculation,” said Mohammed H. Ali, the commissioner of police. “There are no easy fixes here. We’re still investigating.”
All morning, men in white lab coats and white rubber gloves picked through the small pile of rubble in front of the bus stop. One investigator used a long wooden cane to knock down strips of clothing hanging from the trees. A mangled body, which witnesses said was the bomber, was sprawled in front of a small restaurant. Countless bits of paper, with Koranic verses printed on them in English and Arabic, were sprinkled across the sidewalk like confetti.
Traffic was snarled for hours as hundreds of soldiers and policemen sealed off the center of Nairobi. Police officials said that they were interviewing dozens of witnesses and that information regarding the incident would be released in the coming days.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/world/africa/12kenya.html
benundclaudia - 12. Jun, 11:15