Radical Islamic terror struck again Tuesday night, this time in the east African capital of Nairobi, Kenya.
At least 11 people were killed and an unknown number were wounded Tuesday night in a lethal suicide bombing at the luxury DusitD2 hotel complex in the city that is a base for hundreds of diplomats, aid workers, business people and others operating around east Africa.
The Somali Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabab promptly took responsibility for the attack, which began with an explosion in a car park and then a suicide bombing in the hotel lobby.
The gunfire continued for more than two hours, according to multiple international wire services.
The DusitD2 hotel complex is located about a mile away from the Westgate shopping mall in the Riverside area of the capital, also host to the Australian Embassy and several large international corporations, including the offices of Colgate Palmolive, Dow Chemical and Reckitt Benckiser.
Al Shabab wants to overthrow the UN-backed Somali government and impose strict Islamic law. “We are behind the attack in Nairobi. The operation is going on,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesperson, told Reuters by telephone in Somalia.
The Westgate shopping center was attacked by Al Shabab in 2013, leaving 67 dead; Al-Shabab also killed nearly 150 students at Garissa University in 2015.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the inauguration of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi in November 2017, along with the leaders of 11 African nations.
Speaking at Kenyatta’s inauguration, Netanyahu pointed out that both Israel and Kenya face the challenge of ensuring national security, calling terror a “savage disease” that “rampages so many countries, Boko-Haram, Al-Shabab, the awful jihadists in the Sinai.
“This is a threat to all of us,” Netanyahu said at the time. “If we work together we will defeat the barbarians. Our people deserve better; we can provide it for them.”
