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Kenya: deadly blast at Mombasa bus terminal Kenya: deadly blast at Mombasa bus terminal
(about 4 hours later)
At least three people have been killed in two explosions in Kenya's port city of Mombasa. At least three people were killed when attackers threw an explosive device at passengers at a bus station in Mombasa on Saturday, and a luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal city was damaged in a separate blast, officials said.
One of the blasts occurred at a busy bus transport terminal, known as Mwembe Tayari, where a device inside a minibus exploded killing three people, according to witnesses and media. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kenya has blamed similar attacks on the al-Qaida-linked Somali group al-Shabaab, which killed at least 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September.
A second blast was heard at the Reef Hotel, which lies along the Indian Ocean coastline but no casualties were reported in that explosion. There have been a string of attacks since then.
Mombasa police were not immediately available to comment. "A grenade was thrown at passengers," Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kenya has been hit in the recent past by gun and grenade attacks in Mombasa and in the capital Nairobi, which the government has blamed on the al-Qaida-linked Somali group al-Shabaab. "The attackers were riding on a motorbike, and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus."
The Kenyan coast's large Muslim minority, many of whom feel marginalised by the predominantly Christian government, have been a fertile recruitment ground for Islamist militant networks. More than 20 people were wounded.
Gunmen killed six worshippers in a church near the coastal city of Mombasa on 23, an attack of the kind that Islamist militants have been carrying out in retaliation for Kenya's intervention in neighbouring Somalia. Guards at the seaside Reef Hotel said they had prevented attackers from gaining entry, but the suspects threw a bag with an explosive device into the compound. A roof of one building was ripped off by the blast and part of its wall collapsed.
At the bus terminus, victims were sprawled in a pool of blood and the road was littered with shattered glass from a bus.
"I didn't see who threw the object, but I heard a loud explosion before I fell to the ground. I then felt my legs go numb," Halima Sidi, 26, who works at a local supermarket, said at a hospital as nurses bandaged her wounded legs.
The Kenyan coast's large Muslim minority, many of whom feel marginalised by the government, has been a fertile recruitment ground for Islamist militant networks.
Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 to try to drive out al-Shabaab, which it sees as a threat to its own borders and security.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the tourism sector was "on its knees" due to attacks by the militants, who want Kenyan troops out of Somalia. Kenyatta has rejected their demand.
Mombasa is a draw for tourists as well as a major port for the east African region, situated on the Indian Ocean coastline.