Terror strikes Nairobi again: 10 dead and over 70 wounded in twin blasts

NAIROBI: Ten people were killed and over 70 wounded Friday in two bomb attacks in a busy market in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the latest in a wave of unrest blamed on militants.
The twin blasts came the same week the US and the UK issued renewed warnings about possible terror attacks in Kenya, leading to a bristling response from the country’s president Friday, who said such warnings strengthen the will of terrorists.
Hundreds of British tourists were being evacuated from beach resorts near the port city of Mombasa.
The National Disaster Operation Centre (NDOC) said the first blast in the capital occurred next to a 14-seater matatu, or public minibus, and the second was inside a shop in Gikomba Market close to Nairobi’s central business district.
A spokesman at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi’s main hospital, said eight bodies had brought in and “more than 70” people admitted for treatment, many of them in a serious condition. The NDOC then revised the death toll up to 10, while another hospital said it had received around 14 patients.
Since the mall attack, Kenya has suffered numerous smaller bombings in Nairobi and Mombasa. Kenyan authorities, with the help of the FBI, also discovered a huge car bomb that could have caused massive damage.
“Many of the injured are bleeding profusely. We need a lot of blood,” the spokesman, Simon Ithae, told AFP as the hospital issued an appeal for donors.
Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue confirmed that two bombs had been used, and the area was littered with debris including clothing hurled into overhead power and telephone lines.
“Two IEDs were detonated simultaneously,” Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue told reporters at the scene, trying to reassure an increasingly sceptical public that the security forces are in control.
“Don’t panic. We are on top of things,” he said. Police also said two suspects had been arrested.
Earlier this month three people were killed and 86 wounded in twin bus blasts in Nairobi that were blamed on militant cells connected with Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabab rebels. The previous day, twin attacks left four dead in Mombasa.
Kenya has been targeted by the Shabab since sending troops to war-torn Somalia in 2011. Kenyan soldiers are still posted in southern Somalia as part of an African Union force supporting the country’s fragile internationally-backed government.