The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen Movement (HSM) suffered its worst Ramadhan insurgency setback after 6 of its top experts in making and distributing improvised explosive devices was busted near the Somali-Kenya border town of Bula-Hawa near Mandera.
Kenya Security and Intelligence officers and their Somali Counterparts preempted a large scale -mass casualties terrorist attack targeting a soft target in Kenya. The counter terrorism joint task force conducted a successful intelligence led raid targeting 6 improvised explosive devices (IED) experts in a hotel in Bula-Hawa, Gedo Region of Somalia.
The 6 were captured alive and their bomb making equipment seized. Complete antipersonnel explosive devices (A-IED) were found in the hotel room. 4 Suicide borne improvised explosive devices (SVBIED) were found while bomb making material including trinitrotoluene (TNT) and fragmentation-generating objects including nails, ball bearings, and screw nuts (shrapnel) were found. An assortment of assault rifles and ammunition were recovered. Kenya Military Intelligence sources have identified the 6 as Mohamed Ali Weythow, Hassan Adan Bulle, Hassan Mohamed Jama, and Ahmed Muhammed Muse and 2 Kenyans Abdullahi Daud Adan and Ismail Issak Mohamed.
Intelligence officials tracked one of the cell members from Burache. He had contacted 3 cells in Nairobi and Garissa and one in Bula Hawa. All the cells are under surveillance by the intelligence service in Kenya. The call by Ahmed Muse was an activation call. Intelligence shows Muse was waking the sleeper cells to provide logistics for the bombs which would be used to conduct a mass causality terror attack in the capital Nairobi.
The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen Movement cell in Bula-Hawa has been responsible for the assembly and distribution sophisticated explosive devices which army intelligence confirms were constructed with components scavenged from conventional munitions and consumer electronics components such as mobile phones, microwave cooker timers, and consumer-grade two-way-radios.
The terrorists are under the custody of Counter-terrorism police officers. Intelligence shows it is highly likely, the entire network of sleeper cells in North Eastern (NEP), Lamu, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, and Nairobi has been compromised and that it’s a matter of days before they are destroyed in massive counter-terrorism operations in the country.
