Somalia’s hardline al-Shabaab rebels denied yesterday that they had threatened to attack Kenya following a crackdown on Somalis in the capital Nairobi, and said a recording posted on the Internet was a fake.
Renewed fears over the insurgents’ links with Yemen and al-Qaeda, and an attack on the home of a Danish cartoonist by an axe-wielding Somali man with reported ties to al-Shabaab, have focused attention on the militant group.
A recording posted online said the threat was composed by militants angered by Kenya’s decision to deport a Jamaican Islamic cleric and the deaths of protesters in the capital Nairobi who took to the streets a week ago to demonstrate against the move.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, however, said by telephone that the group had not posted the recording on the Web.
“We didn’t threaten Kenya. That story is a false one. We never posted that on the Internet ... Everything needs to be checked first by the media to make sure they know what they are writing about,” Rage said.
Al-Shabaab, which Washington says is al-Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, has verbally threatened to attack Kenya in the past.
Anger has been rising among the Somali community in recent days after Kenyan security forces detained hundreds of Somalis living in a Nairobi suburb.
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