Kenyan police nab suspect with IS links

Kenyan police said on Tuesday they are interrogating a suspect who was arrested last week for planning various terror attacks in East Africa.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett said Mohamed Abdi Ali, a medical intern in Wote Hospital in Makueni County of eastern Kenya has links with the Islamic State (IS) group, Xinhua reported.

"From our initial investigations, it has been established that the terror network linked to Ali has been engaged in the active radicalisation, recruitment of university students and other Kenyan youth into terrorism networks," Boinett was quoted as saying.

He said Ali, who has been planning to carry out various attacks targeting the East African nation, was arraigned in court which granted the police additional 30 days of investigations.

"The suspects were planning large scale attacks akin to the Westgate Mall attack with the intention of killing innocent Kenyans. His network also included medical experts with whom they planned to unleash a biological attack in Kenya using anthrax," Boinett said.

Some 67 people were killed and more than 200 others injured when Al-Shabaab sprayed bullets on shoppers at the Westgate mall attack in September 2013.

--IANS

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