Saturday, October 04, 2008
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KISMAYU, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Islamists threatened Kenya on Saturday with unspecified action after police there arrested two of their gunmen.
The Islamist movement fighting Somalia's government has twice before attacked Kenyan policemen holding some of its members for being in Kenya illegally.
"They were caught in Kenya while doing their duty. We urge Kenya to release our men. We are an armed party in southern Somalia and we are awaiting feedback from Kenya," said Mustaf Ali, commander of Khaalid bin Waliid, a sub-group of the al Shaabab Islamist movement.
"If Kenya releases them, it will be fine, but if not we shall take action. One of our two men had an office in Nairobi and the other one was carrying out our normal duties," he told Reuters without elaborating.
He said they were arrested in the eastern town of Garissa, near the border with Somalia.
Kenyan police denied they had any Somali Islamist fighters in their custody.
"It's propaganda. We don't have any such people, that is, al Shaabab militia here in custody in Garissa," said Stephen Chelimo, head of the provincial police.
In May, suspected Islamists crossed into Kenya and briefly kidnapped policemen holding three of their men who had entered the country without documentation.
In June 2007, two Kenyan policemen that kidnapped by Islamist fighters were found murdered near the border after the arrest of scores of suspected Islamists trying to enter Kenya.
The Islamists have waged an Iraq-style insurgency against President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration and its Ethiopian military allies since being driven from Mogadishu at the end of 2006. (Reporting by Sahra Abdi in Kismayu and Daud Yussuf in Garissa; Writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by Andrew Dobbie) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/).
Source: Reuters, Oct 04, 2008