NAIROBI — Kenya has stepped up surveillance of its border with Somalia after the killing of a top regional Al-Qaeda leader during a lightning US military operation, military officials said Sunday.

“We have taken measures. There is enough security at the border points, it has just been increased and this is a review we do from time to time,” Kenyan military spokesman Bogita Ongeri said.

A top radical Islamist leader in Somalia, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, on Sunday called for more suicide attacks against African Union peacekeepers in the country, to follow up on the twin suicide bombings of the peacekeepers’ headquarters on Thursday which killed 17 soldiers.

Nairobi has voiced fears that radical Islamists in Somalia could target Kenya and intelligence officials in the Kenyan capital have warned of a high risk of extremist attacks.

Somalia’s hardline Shebab Islamist group has vowed to avenge the killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa who was killed in an airborne raid in southern Somalia on Monday.

“The recent development and attacks cannot be taken lightly and that is why we have asked our officers manning the border points to be vigilant,” Ongeri said.

Kenyan military officials told AFP that reinforcements had been sent to the eastern towns of Liboi, Garissa and Wajir which are close to the border.

“Security in these areas was increased on Friday, truck loads’ of soldiers have been arriving to carry out patrols,” said a senior military official speaking on condition of anonymity. “Others are also using helicopters.”

In Nairobi and the country’s main cities the police presence has also been increased.

“Security in the country is reviewed from time to time, this is the case now and it has just been increased,” said Julius Ndegwa, head of police operations at police headquarters.

“We are guarding against any forms of crime including terrorism. We never take chances.”

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Source: AFP

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