Somalis May Kidnap Americans From Kenya

[Jacaylbaro]

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.S. Embassy warned Friday that Somali-based extremists may try to kidnap American citizens from Kenyan beach resorts.

 

"There are indications that Islamic extremists based in Somalia may be planning to target Westerners, especially American citizens, in the Kiwayu Island tourist area and other beach sites frequented by Western travelers on the northeast coast near Somalia," the embassy, which is also responsible for Somalia, said in an e-mail to U.S. citizens.

 

An embassy official — speaking on condition of anonymity, citing embassy guidelines — said the warning was based on a tip from Kenyan security services this week.

 

Kenya shares a 400 mile border with Somalia, which is currently closed. Kenyan security forces have been regularly patrolling the border, which is sparsely populated desert, since a radical group controlling much of southern Somalia was ousted last December by Ethiopian troops supporting the weak U.N.-backed government.

 

Leaders of that group, the Council of Islamic Courts, are alleged to have links with the al-Qaida terror network. Remnants of the group have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency and the transitional government and its Ethiopian allies come under daily attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

 

Kenya, one of Africa's main tourist draws, is relatively peaceful. But in 1998, the U.S. embassies here and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were simultaneously hit, killing 225 people in an attack blamed on al-Qaida. The network was also blamed for another attack four years later on a beach-front hotel in southeastern Kenya, a region that is a key tourist attraction. The car bombing at the hotel killed 13 people and a near-simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner failed.