Security: Police link suspected German-Turkish extremist to Nairobi blast

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

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Kenyan Police investigators have narrowed their probe on two suspects, one of whom they identified as Lichtbilder der Emrah Erdogan, believed to be a German or Turkish using forged passports in connection with Monday’s blast in the capital, Nairobi. Police also confirmed that the blast was caused by an improvised device but further investigations were still underway to determine the detailed description of the ingredients used to manufacture the device, which injured 36 people.

“The team has been able to recover several materials from the scene of the explosion which has been sent for forensic analysis to determine the composition of the explosive and its method of initiation,” the Police said in a statement Tuesday.

Police released photographs of the suspected terrorists, whom they believe may have crossed the Kenya-Somalia border near Garissa town, a region affected by a series of grenade attacks, targeting civilians and refugees in the region as well as Kenyan security agents.

The suspects were believed to have crossed the border from Somalia. Garissa town in Eastern Kenya has been used by the Al Shabaab suspects to ferry explosives into the country. The seizure by the Kenyan military of the towns near Garissa was believed to have created a lull in the attacks on Garissa and other cities.

But the latest attacks followed a renewed resurgence from the frontline in Southern Somalia, where Kenyan soldiers are battling the terror elements linked to the Al Qaeda.

“The investigating team is now working to establish the identity of the perpetrators of this serious crime,” the Police said. “The team is zeroing in on two male suspects whose profile they are piecing together,” the Police revealed.

The bomb blast in Nairobi caused panic across the busy capital, leading to the closure of the Moi Avenue, the key street that links the capital’s growing service-based economy.

Police had earlier insisted the possibility that the attackers had used a conventional bomb was remote, but suspected the device may have been remotely controlled.

“We are still appealing to anybody with information to provide it to the nearest police officer, public servant or other responsible person,” the Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe said in the statement.

Police confirmed the suspects planted the device in the building, which houses several stalls and small and medium businesses, which forms the bulk of East Africa’s largest economy and sub-Sahara’s Africa’s fourth largest after South Africa, Nigeria and Angola.

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