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‘Islamist' letters led to US alert
Monday Nov. 27, 2006
12:30 PM
By Doha Time
NAIROBI: A US warning of possible suicide attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia was prompted by the discovery of two letters signed by Somalia's most influential hardline Islamist leader, a Kenyan newspaper said yesterday.
Washington issued its warning to US citizens on November 2, in response to what it said were “terrorist threats emanating from extremist elements within Somalia”.
But a State Department spokesman gave no details on how those threats were presented.
The Sunday Nation newspaper said it had obtained two letters purportedly signed by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who appears on US and UN terrorism lists, but it could not establish the authenticity of the documents.
The newspaper said the letters called for the assassination of 17 prominent Kenyans and Somalis, an uprising by ethnic groups in Kenya and Ethiopia and for Shabab militia fighters to mass along the Kenya-Somali border.
“The letters made specific threats against public targets in Ethiopia and Kenya and called for suicide attacks,” said US embassy spokeswoman in Nairobi Jennifer Barnes, adding that the letters led to Washington's advisory.
Kenya has in the past expressed concerns that one of the alleged masterminds of the attack was sighted in the Somali capital Mogadishu and may be operating inside Kenya.
The US warning came two weeks after Somalia's interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf, addressed a meeting of US, European and African diplomats in which he cited a document, described as an order by Aweys approving both his and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's assassination.
A diplomat who follows Somalia said the letters quoted in the Nation appeared to be the same ones that were passed around the International Contact Group meeting in Nairobi last month.
“We don't believe them,” the diplomat said, referring to the letters. – Reuters.
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