Did Al-Qaeda from Arabian Peninsula plot foiled attack?

By The Standard on Sunday Team

Kenya: As police celebrate thwarting what they say could have been Kenya’s deadliest terrorist attack, investigators now believe the plotters were from the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) group based in Yemen.

AQAP was apparently targeting to kill Western and Jewish tourists aboard European chartered aircrafts on March 16 and wreck the Moi International Airport to cripple Kenya’s tourist and aviation sector, they say. Their motive, it is suspected, was to seek retribution for Kenya’s military engagement in Somalia against the Al Shabaab militiamen, who have long been sponsored by Al Qaeda.

AQAP’s alleged link in Mombasa was apparently Fuad Abubakar Manswab, a Kenyan fugitive facing terrorism charges in Mombasa alongside Briton Jermaine Grant, intelligence analysts say.

Although police have not formally acknowledged AQAP’s role in the foiled attack, they privately agree that the use of a massive car bomb is often associated with more established affiliates of Al Qaeda such as the AQAP.

“We have not conclusively established which group was behind this plot,” says Mombasa County Commander Robert Kitur who, however, acknowledged the level of sophistication of the booby-trapped car bomb pointed to growing refinement among local terrorists.

Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa admitted Kenya was working with British and US counter-intelligence agencies on account of terrorist attacks on US and Israeli targets in Nairobi and Kilifi in 1997 and 2012 respectively. Kitur said British and US counter-terrorism officials were involved in the current probe because “terrorism is a global problem, you cannot fight it alone and we always share information.”

Financial support

But a source at the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit ATPU told The Standard on Sunday the collaboration was more long-term and involved Britons and Australians providing training and communication intelligence because their nationals were often targets of terror attacks in Kenya.

Nevertheless, there has been progress in the fight against terrorism, local experts acknowledge. “Al Shabaab is in disarray after losing Kismayo, which was a source of revenue,” says Kitur. However, loss of territory does not mean the terror group cannot kill or maim, he warned.

Ahmed Shariff, a security analyst in Mombasa who monitors militant groups including AQAP, Al Shabaab and the lesser known Al Qaeda in East Africa (AQEA), believes the 1997 and 2012 attacks in Kenya were supported by Somali-based militants but made possible with financial, technical support and inspiration from Al Qaeda’s Arab affiliates.

He says AQAP’s suspected involvement in the abortive attack was not unexpected given AQEA’s and Al Shabaab’s current deficiency following battleground losses and decimation of their leaders and commanders.

Shariff says Indian intelligence provided previously shows in the early 1990s the parent Al Qaeda under slain founder Osama bin Laden, sponsored attacks on US forces in Somalia by deploying Kashmiri militant group Jaishe Mohamed and its former leader Maulana Masood Azhar, who reportedly visited Kenya at least twice.

“AQAP is the most active Al Qaeda franchise in the Arabian and Horn of Africa region,” according to the analyst, who adds that there is some proof that some Kenyan Al Qaeda operatives have links with the Yemeni-based militant group.

Interviews with aviation authorities in Nairobi and Mombasa reveal that fears of terror attacks on airports and key installations have always existed since Kenya’s invasion of Somalia in 2011. However, aviation authorities went into red alert in January and February when the Mombasa County Security team warned Moi International Airport surveillance teams that terrorists were planning an attack there.

Popular tactic

“The advisory was very specific because it indicated that terrorists were planning to use a car bomb,” said an official. The advisory indicated “a car bomb was the most likely tactic terrorists would deploy against an international airport in order to kill wantonly and derive maximum publicity”.

“We were also informed that the use of car bombs was becoming a popular tactic by terrorist groups,” said the official.

Some experts say there are strong tactical connections between AQAP and the abortive March 16 terrorist attack derived from comments in the 14th edition of AQAP’s Inspire online magazine, which in February exhorted Al Qaeda cell members to launch attacks on nations that have sent troops to Somalia.

In the alleged plan on Mombasa airport, the plotters sought to drive an explosive-laden car from a garage in Mombasa’s Magongo area, eliminate police sentries and ram through the airport’s main entrance between 3am and 5am on March 16 when most chartered flights from Europe drop tourists and Western executives. Suspects in custody Abdiaziz Abdillahi Abdi and Isaack Noor Abdi were captured before allegedly delivering the car to a quartet that was to commit the actual raid on Mombasa International Airport in a lightning suicide attack preceded by grenade and gun blasts, according to a theory gaining currency among local security agencies.

In a rambling tirade against “infidel” conspiracies on Muslim lands, the editor of Inspire warned that time had come for African Union peace keepers and their nations and sponsors to “pay the price” for the “occupation of Somalia.” The report identified Chicago in the US and Mombasa and Nairobi as some of the cities to be targeted to avenge Muslim blood.

Meanwhile, the same edition included online lessons on how to assemble a Car Borne Improvised Explosive Device (CBIED), and exhorted cell members to develop bombs from fertilisers and lace them with ball bearings, shrapnel and gasoline to maximise damage and human losses during attacks.

Although Mombasa’s security officials deny knowledge of the foregoing, we reliably learnt that the local County Security Committee was aware of AQAP’s threats, going by reports in AQEA’s Kiswahili online newspaper.