Police arrest three 'suspects' who stormed a UK Army base in Kenya

Kenyan police arrest three ‘terrorist suspects’ trying to force their way into a British Army camp in a ‘coordinated attack’ after a US air base was set ablaze

  • Three ‘terror suspects’ arrested Sunday trying to break into a UK base in Kenya
  • It appears to have been coordinated to coincide with an attack on a US base   
  • Kenyan security services have long feared al-Shabab could partner with Iran 

Kenyan police say they have arrested three men who tried to force their way into a British Army training camp on the same day that al-Shabab extremists attacked a military base and killed three US military personnel.

The internal police report said the three ‘terrorist suspects’ were arrested Sunday after trying to enter the British Army Training Unit in Laikipia county. 

It occurred around the same time as the al-Shabab assault on the base in Lamu county.

The British government was not immediately available for comment.

Al-Shabab’s assault at the Manda Bay Airfield lasted several hours and destroyed several US aircraft and vehicles. The airfield is adjacent to Camp Simba, a key Kenyan military base used by US counterterror forces.

An undated image taken from the British Army Training Unit in Laikipia county’s Facebook shows a British soldier outside the training centre 

Smoke rises as flames ravage the American base at Manda Bay Airfield in Lamu County, Kenya yesterday 

An image distributed by al-Shabab shows one of the extremists holding the al-Shabab flag aloft while planes burn, said to be at the American Manda Bay Airfield in Manda, Lamu, Kenya yesterday 

No Kenyans died in the attack, Kenya’s military spokesman Paul Njuguna said Monday.

The two Sunday attacks come days after a US airstrike killed Iran’s top military commander and Iran vowed retaliation, but al-Shabab is a Sunni Muslim group and there is no sign of links to Shiite Iran or proxies. 

Iran has vowed to avenge his death Soleimani, and a senior commander has issued a chilling warning that British forces could be hit.

‘Our forces will retaliate and target US troops in Middle East without any concern about killing its allies, including UK troops, as this has turned into a fully fledged war with much collateral damage expected,’ the unnamed commander told The Times. 

‘No, this attack was no way related to that incident’ in the Middle East, an al-Shabab spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

One analyst, Rashid Abdi, in Twitter posts discussing the attack agreed, but added that Kenyan security services have long been worried that Iran was trying to cultivate ties with al-Shabab.

An image distributed by al Shabaab after the attack on an American military base in Kenya shows Somalia’s al Shabaab militant group’s flag, said to be at the Manda Bay Airfield in Manda, Lamu, Kenya yesterday 

A 2011 file photo taken on the outskirts of Mogadishu shows Somalian al-Shabab fighters in military training 

‘Avowedly Wahhabist Al-Shabaab not natural ally of Shia Iran, hostile, even. But if Kenyan claims true, AS attack may have been well-timed to signal to Iran it is open for tactical alliances,’ he wrote, adding that ‘an AS that forges relations with Iran is nightmare scenario.’ 

Kenya is a key base for fighting al-Shabab, one of the world’s most resilient extremist organizations. A plume of black smoke rose above the US airfield Sunday after residents said a car bomb had exploded.  

The al-Shabab claim of responsibility said Sunday’s attack was part of its ‘Jerusalem will never be Judaized’ campaign, a rarely made reference that also was used after al-Shabab’s deadly attack on a luxury mall complex in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, in January 2019.

 

 

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