{"id":31869,"date":"2019-02-05T07:22:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T07:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31869"},"modified":"2019-02-05T07:22:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T07:22:57","slug":"us-embassy-in-nairobi-warns-citizens-of-possible-attack-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31869","title":{"rendered":"US embassy in Nairobi warns citizens of possible attack in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The United States warned its citizens in Kenya on Monday that “credible information indicates Westerners may be targeted by extremists”.<\/p>\n

The warning comes just weeks after a deadly al-Shabab<\/a> attack on an upmarket hotel in the capital, Nairobi, in which at least 21 people, including a US citizen, were shot dead.<\/p>\n

Sixteen Kenyans and a British citizen were also killed in the siege that lasted more than 19 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US embassy in Nairobi said targets could include several parts of the east African country, listing Nairobi, Naivasha, Nanyuki, and coastal areas, all popular with foreign tourists.<\/p>\n

“The US Embassy reminds the public of the continued need for heightened vigilance throughout Kenya, especially in public spaces such as shopping malls, hotels, and places of worship,” the statement<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the UK government updated its travel advisory<\/a> to the country saying Britons should avoid areas near the Somalia-Kenya border and parts of the coastal region.<\/p>\n

According to the UK’s foreign and commonwealth office “there’s a heightened threat of terrorist attacks across Kenya, including Nairobi and the coast and resort areas around Mombasa and Malindi, and northern border counties”.<\/p>\n

“Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Kenya,” the travel advise said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Armed group al-Shabab regularly targets places frequented by foreigners or government officials in both Somalia and neighbouring Kenya.<\/p>\n

The Somalia-based group, founded in 2006, wants to impose a strict version of Islamic law and is fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government in Somalia.<\/p>\n

The group used to control most major cities and towns in south and central Somalia but a UN-mandated African Union peacekeeping mission has pushed them out of those areas. Kenya has troops in Somalia as part of the peacekeeping mission.<\/p>\n

In 2013, fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked group attacked an upscale shopping mall<\/a> in Nairobi, killing more than 70 people. The siege on the mall lasted for four days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States warned its citizens in Kenya on Monday that “credible information indicates Westerners may be targeted by extremists”. The warning comes just weeks after a deadly al-Shabab attack on an upmarket hotel in the capital, Nairobi, in which at least 21 people, including a US citizen, were shot dead. Sixteen Kenyans and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}