Saturday 7 January 2012

Britons warned over Nairobi terror threat


Map of Kenya The Kenyan authorities have increased security in the city of Nairobi

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British nationals in Kenya have been warned to be vigilant after the Kenyan authorities alerted the public to a heightened threat from terrorist attacks in the capital city, Nairobi.
The Foreign Office said it believed terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks.
Britons are strongly advised to "exercise extra vigilance and caution in public places", it said.
The Kenyan authorities have increased security in Nairobi.
The Kenyan army is engaged in military action against al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants in southern Somalia.
The warning comes after the Kenyan army said it had killed 60 Somali al-Shabab militia fighters in air strikes and was determined to "break their spine completely".
But al-Shabab responded by promising to defeat the Kenyans.
In an update to its travel advice on Saturday, the Foreign Office said: "The Kenyan authorities have alerted the public to a heightened threat from terrorist attacks in Nairobi.
'Strong fear' "We believe that terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate and target Kenyan institutions as well as places where expatriates and foreign travellers gather, such as hotels, shopping centres and beaches.
"We strongly advise British nationals to exercise extra vigilance and caution in public places and at public events."
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Caroline Hawley said the wording of the Foreign Office update suggested it was based on intelligence.
She said it followed a warning, two days ago, from Kenyan police that al-Shabab in Somalia had teamed up with al-Qaeda to plan attacks.
A team of British counter-terrorist officials have also recently returned from Kenya, she added.
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said UK government officials say they believe "a serious and credible terrorist plot" has been disrupted recently in Kenya. He added that the targets were most likely to have been Western.
Simon Calder, travel editor of the Independent, said Kenya, and in particular Nairobi, had an awful history of terrorist attacks, and there was a "very, very strong fear about al-Shabab".
In 1998, 200 people died in an attack on the US embassy in Nairobi, and in 2002, there was an attack on a hotel used by Israeli tourists in Mombassa.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October after a string of kidnappings and cross-border attacks which had threatened Kenya's tourism industry

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