Raid, grenades, gunfire: Three dead in Kenyan tourist city
A Kenyan police officer guards the house where the attack took place.
October 17th, 2012
09:38 AM ET

Raid, grenades, gunfire: Three dead in Kenyan tourist city

Police knocked on the door in the middle of the night, giving whoever was inside a chance to open it.  But the anti-terrorism squad had come prepared for a raid.

When the militant suspect inside refused to let them in, the officers broke down the door - and were met by a grenade flying straight at them.

The blast injured three officers and killed a suspected criminal who had led them to the home in Mombasa, Kenya's second-largest city and a popular tourist destination.  Police had arrested the suspect earlier, and got him to take them to what he said was a home containing an illegal weapons cache, according to regional police chief Aggrey Adoli.

As the grenade exploded, police began shooting into the doorway, killing the suspected militant who had hurled the explosive at them.

As he fell, he dropped a second grenade he'd been holding. That blast injured five policemen - one of whom who later died due to his injuries.

Inside the house, police recovered two more grenades, a pistol, and 15 rounds of ammunition, Adoli said.

The suspects - both the one who took police to the home and the one who pitched the grenade at them - had no identity cards, Adoli said.  "We cannot rule out that they are enemies from Al-Shabaab who were planning an attack following the fall of Kismayo” in neighboring Somalia, he added.

The al Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabaab is trying to overthrow the Somali government, and has also been blamed for violence in Kenya.

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Filed under: Africa • Kenya • Somalia • World
soundoff (15 Responses)
  1. malka bark

    time for jomo to rise

    October 17, 2012 at 10:47 am | Report abuse |
  2. Mike

    This article headline is extremely misleading. I thought tourists had been attacked... shame on you for sensationalist reporting.

    If this was in San Francisco or Madrid, would you have added the word "tourist"?

    October 17, 2012 at 12:04 pm | Report abuse |
    • Sinfully Yours

      No, they would have replaced "tourist" with "hippy."

      October 17, 2012 at 12:15 pm | Report abuse |
    • Mallory Simon, CNN News blog editor

      Mike, Thanks for posting. Mombasa is known for being Kenya's second-largest city and a popular tourist destination. That's why we wrote it that way. Thanks for commenting and sharing your opinion.

      October 17, 2012 at 12:32 pm | Report abuse |
    • Liv

      Not only does Mombasa attract lots of Brit and Continental (mainly German/Italian/Swiss) tourists, it used to be quite common for US Navy ships to dock in the deepwater port there. So there used to be lots of American sailors on shore leave periodically as well, though I'm not sure if that still happens. Look up Mombasa beaches on google images – it will become apparent why it's popular with tourists.

      This event actually shows that they are trying to crack down on extremists.

      BTW, I think there's a mistake in the 5th para – "one of whom who later died due to his injuries".

      October 17, 2012 at 4:48 pm | Report abuse |
  3. anyaga

    What a sensationalist and misleading headline, positioned to scare tourists or what?

    October 17, 2012 at 12:16 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Toro

    its really misleading CNN wake & be real

    October 17, 2012 at 12:26 pm | Report abuse |
  5. banasy©

    Nothing misleading about it; it caught your eye and you read the story, which is what the headline is designed to do.
    I read very clearly, "tourist CITY".
    Getting rather tired of reading these kinds of stories, though.
    I am glad to live where I live.

    October 17, 2012 at 1:27 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Robert

    CNN should not have put the word tourist in the headline. It seems like it was intended to capture attention but it is also scary to tourists and that is not good for the country.

    October 17, 2012 at 3:06 pm | Report abuse |
  7. City Slicker

    If you we're at all mislead by the headlines then that's enough said.. It plainly stated three dead in Kenya tourist city. If tourists had been killed headlines would have read as follows "Three tourists killed in Kenya" or to the effect...reading requires great comprehension skills.......

    October 17, 2012 at 3:19 pm | Report abuse |
  8. fred

    15 Rounds isn't a weapons cache, it's one magazine

    October 17, 2012 at 6:09 pm | Report abuse |
  9. FACEIT

    no one cares about these people > ESPECIALLY "Americans".... only the beaches of oil.... guess that means they could care less about you worldwide... eh?

    October 18, 2012 at 4:33 am | Report abuse |
  10. FACEIT

    How many little girls hurt by ARMY thugs all over the world on a daily basis? Wanna count? Good luck getting those statistics.

    October 18, 2012 at 4:34 am | Report abuse |
  11. SOPHIE

    Come on people! Please don't go to those High-Risk and life-threatning places like Kenya, Maldives, or thos Muslim countries. There are plenty of beautiful beaches, temples, ruins, colonial towns, resorts, in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. We welcome you with open arms, and respect you.

    October 18, 2012 at 8:08 am | Report abuse |
    • xavier

      Please don't tell us where to spend our free time. I'm sure these people go to Kenya or wherever the go and mostly have a great time and find enough people in those countries that respectthem just fine.

      October 18, 2012 at 2:39 pm | Report abuse |
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