At Least 10 Killed In Nairobi Bomb Explosions: Reports

At least ten people have been killed and scores of others injured in Kenyan capital of Nairobi after two separate explosions hit the city, media reports citing local officials said Friday.

While the first explosion hit a minibus, the second ripped though the busy Gikomba open-air market. Local media reports indicate at least seventy people were injured in the two explosions.

Officials suspect that the explosions were caused by improvised explosive devices. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the twin bombings yet, Kenyan authorities blame the al-Shabab militant Islamist group from neighboring Somalia.

Al-Shabaab is Somalia’s most prominent and influential Islamist militant unit, and is branded a terrorist organization by the United States and most of the international community. The al-Qaeda aligned outfit is the military wing of the Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces in 2006.

Kenyan troops are currently in Somalia as part of a cross-border operation aimed at driving al-Shabaab militants away from the border separating the two nations.

Since their arrival in Somalia in 2012, Kenyan forces, along with African Union peacekeepers and Somali forces, have managed to capture several al-Shabaab strongholds.

Nevertheless, the Islamist militant group has retaliated with several terror attacks inside Kenya. The group claimed responsibility for the recent four-day siege at the Westgate shopping complex in Nairobi in which at least 67 people of different nationalities were killed and scores of others injured.

by RTT Staff Writer