Police shoot dead terror suspect as 'most wanted terrorist' escapes

 Officers carry the body of the late Idris Mohamed alias Rasta who was killed by officers at Bondeni in Mombasa County. Idris was in the list of wanted suspects. [Photo: Kelvin Karan/Standard]

Mombasa, Kenya: Police stormed a house in Mombasa and killed a man they alleged is a wanted terrorist with links to Al-Shabaab but missed a man they termed as the most wanted terrorist behind the Westgate attack.

A source told The Standard that although police said they killed a terror suspect, Abdikadar Mohamed Abdikadar, an Al-Shabaab leader known as Ikrima escaped. Our sources did not indicate how and when Ikrima entered Kenya.

Mombasa police have been on the alert for Al-Shabaab infiltrators following last week’s killing of their commander Ali Godane Abu Zubayr in an airstrike in Somalia and as the first anniversary of the Westgate raid nears.

 HAND GRENADE

The killing of 25-year-old Idris Mohamed has sparked protests from relatives and rights group who accused anti-terror police of killing the school drop-out in cold blood then fabricating evidence to justify it.

Police claimed Mohamed was killed after he hurled a grenade at them from an attic. Mombasa County Police Commander Robert Kitur displayed the device which he said did not explode.

However, his mother told The Standard that her son surrendered to police who marched him out of the house in Bondeni, stripped him naked in the yard, handcuffed from behind and then “shot three times in the head”.

The mother Nadia Ahmed denied police claims that her son belonged to Al-Shabaab or has visited the terrorist group’s camp in Somalia.

“My son has neither been to Somalia nor been involved in any terror related issue. He has been living with us doing odd jobs within the town and has never killed anyone. The excuses that the police officers are giving are lame,” said Ms Ahmed after recording a statement with police accompanied by Haki Africa Executive Director Hussein Khalid and Muslims for Human Rights Board Chairman Khalif Khelefa.

Khalid described the killing as an extra-judicial murder adding that police had been encouraged to kill in this way because they have been promised protection but warned this is inflaming extremism in the region.

“These officers are killing people just because the Government is protecting them and they should know that they are responsible for the extremism taking place because of their behaviour,” said Khalid.

Yesterday Kitur identified the deceased as a wanted terrorist who has been sought by police for long.

 

Kitur said: “Police received intelligence that there were some criminals planning terror activities in Mombasa.  Before the raid and when police trailed them to a house in Bondeni a man ran to the roof of the house and tried to hurl a grenade.”

According to Kitur Mohamed’s alleged accomplice whom he described as “a very dangerous terrorist” recently returned from Somalia to train some Kenyans in Mombasa but did not explain further. Kitur further said Mohamed and his alleged gang carried out the recent killings of Russian and German tourists in Mombasa.

But a top security official told The Standard that this “very dangerous terrorist” was most likely Ikrima. He said an informant told Government agents after the raid that “a man called Ikrima escaped from the house and we suspect it is the same Ikrima who was behind the Westgate mall attack.”

Mohamed’s mother denied claims her son was violent. “There was no resistance when the police arrested him. I heard cries from my son pleading with the police while responding “yes sir”. Later they took him to the corridor near the door. I heard gunshots,” she said adding that after the shooting the officers allegedly tried to force her to sign a piece of paper showing a grenade was recovered from the scene.

“I did not see my son being shot but I heard gunshots. My younger son realised his brother had been killed.”