By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) – Three robed women tricked their way into a Mombasa police station where they stabbed one officer and set fire to the building with a petrol bomb before being shot dead, an officer and a witness said on Sunday.
The city of Mombasa, with a large Muslim population on the coast of Kenya, has been targeted by Islamist militants in recent years although the frequency of attacks has subsided.
Under the pretext of reporting a stolen phone, the women walked into the police station on Saturday morning, a knife and petrol bomb concealed in their traditional Buibui robes.
“While being questioned by officers, one drew a knife and the other threw a petrol bomb at the police officers,” Patterson Maelo, Mombasa County Police Commander, told reporters at the scene.
“The station caught fire. Police shot the three and killed them. Two officers are in hospital with wounds. Presumably it is a terror attack.”
Two bullet-proof jackets and an unused petrol bomb were recovered from the dead suspects, Coast regional commander Nelson Marwa told reporters.
“We already have crucial leads that will help in investigation,” he said.
Two separate police sources who asked not to be named said a woman who had housed the suspects the night before the attack had been arrested.
Salma Mohamed, a witness who was at the station to see a relative in custody, said one attacker had jumped onto a counter and stabbed an officer in the thigh before being shot.
Police did not say which group the suspects were linked to but Mohamed said the women pledged allegiance to al Shabaab.
“They shouted saying they were al Shabaab and recited the Arabic slogan ‘Allahu Akbar’ even as police fired bullets at them. They did not run. They shouted until bullets fell them down,” she told reporters.
Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has taken responsibility for attacks in Mombasa and other parts of Kenya, saying it was in retaliation for the East African country sending its troops to Somalia.
Al Shabaab was behind an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall that killed 67 people and a raid on Garissa university in the northeast that killed 148. The militants also launched several attacks in 2014 that left more than 100 dead in Lamu County region.
(Reporting by Joseph Akwiri; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Susan Thomas and Stephen Powell)
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