Police gun down three t*******t suspects linked to Dusit attack
Police in Mombasa yesterday gunned down three suspected terrorists in a dawn raid at their hideout just a day after the arrest of a suspect linked to the DusitD2 Complex attack in Nairobi.
The suspects whose identity remains unknown, were shot dead inside a rented room at Sashaman Dudus area of Likoni.
Police said the bed-sitter house had been rented by another terror suspect Fawaz Ahmed Hamdun, one of the most wanted al Shabaab operatives.
Hamdun, 28, who is alleged to have been involved in the DusitD2 attack that left 21 people dead, was arrested on Sunday at King’orani area in an undercover operation undertaken by a multi-agency team.
Key role
He allegedly played a key role in facilitating the return of Mombasa-born DusitD2 suicide bomber Mahir Riziki to Kenya from Somalia to carry out the attack.
Riziki was on police most wanted list and is alleged to have fled the country in 2014 after killing of a police officer at Royal Court Hotel.
Likoni sub-county Police Commander Benjamin Rotich said seven more terror suspects were arrested in a separate incident in Majengo Mapya area.
“The three were shot dead after a gunfight with a multi agency team in a house we believe to be their hideout since May this year,” he said.
Rotich said they were profiling the suspects to establish if they were part of al Shabaab militants who had managed to sneak into the country from Somalia.
“It’s still early to disclose if any of the suspects is among those being sought by police over claims of having sneaked into the country from Somalia to carry out terror attacks. They are in our custody awaiting and we are interrogating them further,” he said.
Rotich added that over 200 Identity Cards had been recovered from the slain suspects and police are in the process of contacting the registrar of persons and cyber crime unit to help in identifying the suspects.
Two of the suspects gunned down are believed to be Somalia nationals. According to police, the house was used to plan terrorists attacks targeting vital government installations such as the airport and SGR.
Acting Regional DCI Paul Leting said police had been trailing the suspects since May this year when they are alleged to have sneaked into the country.
Carry out attack
“We are aware that the suspects were planning to carry attacks since May and we have been monitoring their movement since then.
Today, we decided to carry out an operation to flush them out, however upon being ordered to surrender they declined and hurled a grenade at anti-terror officers,” he said.
During the raid police recovered grenades, a G3 rifle believed to a have been stolen from Likoni police station during the 1997 Kayabombo attacks, several rounds of ammunition, police uniforms, and an assortment of crude weapons.
