Two die as hand grenade detonates in Kenya

A Kenyan policeman and a man he was trying to arrest were killed today when the suspect detonated a hand grenade just yards from Mombasa’s central police station.

Police in a pick-up truck had stopped a vehicle and tried to apprehend several men inside when one of them detonated the grenade, killing himself and one of the police officers, bystanders said.

Witnesses said two men in the suspected vehicle had escaped on foot into narrow, winding streets of Mombasa’s Old Town.

Last November at least 10 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists were killed when a car bomb ploughed into a hotel north of Mombasa.

Almost at the same time, several men fired two shoulder-held missiles at an charter aircraft loaded with Israeli tourists taking off from Mombasa airport the missiles missed and were later found in a field.

Five Kenyan men have been charged with murder in connection with the attack, which was blamed on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

Five years ago, al-Qaida exploded a car bomb outside the US embassy in the capital, Nairobi, killing 219 people, 12 of them Americans.

The US State Department subsequently issued travel advisories for both countries because of suspected terrorist presence, especially in Kenya.

In June, the advisory was raised to a terror alert.

British Airways subsequently suspended its scheduled flights to Nairobi and its charter flights to Mombasa.

Flights to Nairobi resumed early last month, and the charter flights to Mombasa had been expected to resume later this month.