Israel accuses Iran of plotting attacks in Kenya

Two Iranians arrested in Nairobi a fortnight ago were part of a Tehran-sponsored terror network that planned attacks on Israeli interests, Israel has claimed.

Other attacks on Israeli targets had been planned and executed in Azerbaijan, Thailand, Georgia and India, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.


He accused Iran of also being behind the foiled assassination attempt on the Saudi Arabian ambassador in the United States.

The Israeli claims are likely to test relations between Kenya and Iran. The two countries have moved to deepen bilateral ties in recent months.

Only last month, they signed a multi-billion-shilling deal under which Iran will supply Kenya with cheap oil.


Under the agreement, Kenya will import four million tonnes of Iranian crude oil annually, Energy permanent secretary Patrick Nyoike said on Monday.

Mr Nyoike refused to comment on how the deal sits with US and European Union sanctions against Iranian oil exports.

There are reports that the increasing ties between Nairobi and Tehran were causing jitters in the US and Europe, which have slapped sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear weapons programme and alleged sponsorship of terrorism.






“Iranian terrorism knows no borders,” the Israeli leader said in a statement from his Jerusalem office.

“The international community must fight against this major player in the world of terrorism.

“After Iran sent its agents to murder the Saudi ambassador on US soil, the country has now engaged in attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, in Tbilisi, in New Delhi, and now we have just discovered a plot for a terrorist attack in Africa,” said Mr Netanyahu.

The attacks in Bangkok, Tbilisi and New Delhi targeted Israeli diplomats. In Nairobi on Tuesday, police said the two Iranians — Mr Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammed and Mr Sayed Mansour Mousav — had given them enough information to scuttle their terrorist plans.

The Iranians led police to a hideout in Mombasa where they seized 15kg of RDX, an explosive material.

The RDX was in two grey rucksacks, neatly wrapped in blue polythene bags. It was recovered near the Mombasa Golf Club.

Attempts to get a comment from the Iranian embassy in Nairobi were unsuccessful.

The Iranians denied two counts of preparing to commit a felony and being in possession of RDX, when they appeared before Nairobi senior principal magistrate PC Biwott.

“We ask this court to release us on bond because we are innocent. Police took away our money and we have been tortured,” they told the court.

Coast provincial police boss Aggrey Adoli said the two had given them information to help in dismantling the terror network in the country.



Israel accuses Iran of plotting attacks in Kenya*- News*|nation.co.ke


Iranians’ 30-bomb plot on Kenya

Two Iranian terror suspects in the hands of police have reportedly confessed they planned to detonate a series of 30 killer bombs across Kenya at once.
The shocking confession police report to have secured from the two, not only paints how serious the magnitude of terror planned against Kenya could be, but also shows the plot has attained an international dimension.
Like in the case of the 1998 Nairobi terror bomb targeting American Embassy, and that of 2002 against Israeli-owned Kikambala Hotel in Mombasa, police reveal the latest series of attacks were aimed at local US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and British interests.
This could be the attacks Kenya’s high-level security team had been warned were about to take place, and that the isolated cases of grenade and gun attacks against civilians in North Eastern, Nairobi, and Mombasa were diversionary lower-levels attacks.
It were the two Iranian terror suspects arrested in Nairobi that police say led Kenyan security officials to a 15kg stash of explosives, which were to be used in simultaneous 30-bomb attacks. Each kilo was to produce two bombs.
It is from this information that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Tuesday it should take responsibility for the alleged heinous plot.
It is, however, not clear if the intelligence fed on the two Iranians – calling themselves Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi – were from Kenya or Israeli’s Mossad and America’s international intelligence networks that have always had their eyes riveted on global terror cells and their kingpins.
The terror suspects reportedly planned to take advantage of the attacks being experienced in Kenya by Al Shabaab sympathisers, though their cause was different and focused largely not on war in Somalia, but American, British and Israeli, and Saudi Arabia, the Middle East State perceived by many Muslim-dominated countries as a collaborator of the US and Israel.
Last October US agents claimed to have thwarted a plot by Iran to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in to the United States.
“In addition to holding these individual conspirators accountable for their alleged role in this plot, the United States is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions,” US Attorney General Eric Holder declared after the plot was neutralised.
“They were to target some of the embassies and other installations had their plans materialised,” revealed a senior officer familiar with the tracking of the Iranians after they entered Kenya. He spoke on condition he would not be quoted.
powerful explosives
On June 25, a Kenyan court charged two Iranians with illegal possession of 15kg of the powerful explosive RDX, according to the charge sheet. Both have denied the charges.
The Iranian Foreign ministry said on Saturday it was seeking information about their case, and refused to comment.

Standard Digital : Iranians? 30-bomb plot on Kenya