Grenade attack at Nairobi bar wounds 12

Oct 24, 2011

A grenade attack on a bar in the centre of Nairobi early today the 24th October 2011 wounded 12 people, Kenyan police said, an incident that comes as Nairobi battles al Qaeda-linked militants in neighbouring Somalia.

By Yara Bayoumy and Njuwa Maina

 

A grenade attack on a bar in the centre of Nairobi early today the 24th October 2011 wounded 12 people, Kenyan police said, an incident that comes as Nairobi battles al Qaeda-linked militants in neighbouring Somalia.
 

Capital news radio quoted a witness who said a man had asked to be let in to the bar shortly after 3 a.m. (0000 GMT), when he hurled a grenade and fled the scene.
 

"It was a grenade attack. There are no deaths," central Nairobi police chief Eric Mugambi told Reuters, adding that of the 12, two had serious wounds in the leg and the face.

 

A victim of an explosion in a club waits in the emergency wing of Kenyatta National Hospital in the capital Nairobi.
 

The blast came two days after the U.S. embassy in Kenya warned of an 'imminent threat' of a terrorist attack in Nairobi after the east African country launched a military campaign against Islamist al Shabaab rebels in southern Somalia.
 

Nairobi blames the militants for a wave of kidnappings of foreigners on Kenyan soil that have threatened the country's multi-million dollar tourism industry.

 

Al Shabaab had threatened major reprisals if Kenyan troops did not withdraw and the militants have launched large-scale suicide bombings in the past.
 

No one has claimed responsibility for the incident. (Reuters)