Execution of Kenyan radical preacher backer of Somali Islamists in Mombasa sparks riots aimed at Christians.

Execution of Kenyan radical preacher backer of Somali Islamists in Mombasa sparks riots aimed at Christians.(DS).MOMBASA, Kenya: Deadly riots broke out in Kenya’s main port of Mombasa Monday after the assassination of a radical preacher linked to Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-allied Al-Shabaab militants. At least one person was hacked to death as thousands of angry protesters took to the streets after Aboud Rogo Mohammad – who was on U.S. and U.N. sanction lists for allegedly supporting Al-Shabaab – was shot dead.
“A car behind us aimed at my husband, they shot him on the right side,” said his widow Haniya Said, screaming in grief after the killing by unknown attackers. “One person has been killed; he was slashed to death during the protests,” said regional police chief Aggrey Adoli. Cars were set on fire and two churches were looted in the city – Kenya’s main port and a key tourist hub – according to an AFP reporter.
“There is chaos in town now, and our officers are on the ground dispersing the rioters to maintain peace,” added Adoli. “They are demonstrating against the killing of Aboud Rogo, who was shot by unknown people.” Witnesses said that Mohammad’s car was riddled with bullets, and a photograph released by his supporters showed his bloody corpse slumped behind the wheel of a car. “He died as we rushed him to hospital. Why have they killed my dear husband?” his widow added, before she and her children were taken to the hospital.
Mohammad was placed on a United States sanctions list in July for “engaging in acts that directly or indirectly threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia,” specifically for recruiting and fundraising for the hard-line Al-Shabaab. The United Nations Security Council placed a travel ban and asset freeze on the preacher in July, saying he had provided “financial, material, logistical or technical support to Al-Shabaab.” He was the “main ideological leader” of Kenya’s Al-Hijra group, also known as the Muslim Youth Center, the U.N. said. The group is viewed as a close ally of the Al-Shabaab in Kenya.Mohammad “used the extremist group as a pathway for radicalization and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for carrying out violent militant activity in Somalia,” the U.N. said.
MYC leader Sheikh Ahmad Iman Ali, in a message posted on Twitter, said: “We are on the right track when our leaders get shahadah [martyrdom]. “He will remain in our hearts forever,” the MYC added, while another message offered the grim warning that the “kuffar [infidels] will pay” for his death.
“The whole city is on fire, there are looters in the streets, cars have been damaged, some have been burnt,” said Francis Auma, from the local organization Muslims for Human Rights. “An imam in the mosque shouted through the speaker ‘blood for blood,’ and immediately youths started stoning cars,” said witness Dennis Odhiambo, whose car was damaged and who was forced to flee into a police station for safety. Mohammad “repeatedly called for the violent rejection of the Somali peace process,” the U.S. Treasury said, noting he had often advocated the use of violence against both the U.N. and the African Union force battling Al-Shabaab in Somalia. He “urged his audiences to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab’s fight against the Kenyan government,” the Treasury added. Kenyan police arrested the preacher in January seizing firearms, ammunition and detonators, but later released him on bail. He was previously acquitted of the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa which killed 15 people – 12 Kenyans and three Israelis – as well as three suicide bombers.Read the full story here.