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Kenya hunts for 2 Al-Shabaab suspects over intelligence agent murder

Xinhua, July 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenyan police on Friday launched a major manhunt for two Al-Shabaab suspects behind the murder of a National Intelligence Service (NIS) officer in the coastal city of Mombasa on Thursday night.

Mombasa County Police Commander Robert Kitur also released name and photographs of one of the suspects suspected of killing the officer as he left a mosque on Thursday.

"We already have one suspect in mind and he is called Ismail Mohamed Soshi who has been trained in Somalia," Kitur told a news conference in Mombasa. Kitur said they were pursuing another suspect whom he did not name.

"The police have information on a second suspect. The two hooded gunmen had camped outside the mosque waiting for him before they struck, fatally shooting him at close range. We are pursuing them," he said.

Kitur said Soshi and his accomplices confronted the officer Hashim Omar and shot him five at point blank before they escaped on foot. This comes barely two months after another intelligence officer was gunned down by gunmen in the same area.

Kitur said Soshi is part of Al-Shabaab hit-squad targeting security agencies and perceived informers in the tourism resort region.

"He is a threat to the national security and people of Mombasa. We are appealing for public support to apprehend him," Kitur said.

Police said Soshi has in the past been linked with the radical Musa Mosque in Mombasa's Majengo area and has ties with Luqman Osman Issa, the Al-Shabaab militant killed in Lamu last month.

Soshi is brother of slain terror suspect Idris Soshi who was gunned down in 2014 by anti-terror police officer in Bondeni.

Mombasa divisional police commander Geofrey Mayek told Xinhua they have launched manhunt for Soshi believed to have orchestrated the murder.

Mayek said teams of specialized officers have been deployed to hunt the terror gang operating within specific areas to arrest him over a spate of terror attacks in the coastal region.

The two Al-Shabaab suspects are believed to behind the murder of Germany and Russian tourists in Mombasa recently. Endi