Kenyan police have thwarted a terrorist attack targeting Egypt after arresting members of an international terror gang. The gang was planning to hit the capital city of Egypt, Cairo, on Friday but their plans were thwarted when Kenyan detectives raided their planning bases in the country and arrested five men. The police raid was part of an international effort involving Kenyan, South African and Egyptian police as well as the International Police Organisation, Interpol. The terror suspects, most of them below 27 years, were arrested in Nairobi and Wajir town on Friday afternoon and yesterday following intelligence gathered by detectives from the three countries. Kenyan detectives arrested some of the suspects in the city while others were apprehended in Wajir. It is believed that they were planning a terror attack in Cairo to coincide with the Africa Cup of Nations finals. According to a source close to the investigations, detectives in Pretoria, South Africa, tipped off their Kenyan and Egyptian counterparts who started monitoring the groups in their respective countries. The Kenyan suspects were in constant telephone communication with their Egyptian and South African accomplices in planning the attack and were scheduled to execute the mission minutes before they were arrested. Police were monitoring telephone conversations made by the terrorists between the three countries as they planned the attack before conducting simultaneous operations to apprehend them. But one of the ringleaders is believed to be still at large.
A police helicopter was yesterday morning dispatched to Wajir to fly one of the suspects, a young man in his mid-20s, dressed in a maroon robe, to Nairobi. He was driven to Wajir airstrip which is located in a military camp from where he was flown to the city. The suspect was whisked away under tight security to the CID headquarters where he was interrogated before being taken to an undisclosed police station. His accomplices, some arrested on Friday and others yesterday, are being held in different police stations around the city and its environs as investigations into their activities continue. Kenyan police remained officially tight-lipped on the arrest of members of the international terror gang. The detectives are yet to establish whether those arrested are members of the Al-Qaeda network.
International anti-terrorist experts believe the network has cells and training camps in neighbouring Somalia. Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali is on record as having promised relentless efforts by his officers to fight crime in all its manifestations, including terrorism. In December, Administration Police officers seized a rocket launcher and four rocket propellers and arrested a suspected terrorist in Wajir's Biamadhow area.