4 Dead, 40 Hurt in Kenya Attack

Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents blamed for grenade strike
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 10, 2012 6:09 PM CST
4 Dead, 40 Hurt in Kenya Attack
People injured in a grenade attack at a downtown bus station are treated at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, March 10, 2012.   (Khalil Senosi)

A grenade attack at one of the main bus stations in Kenya's capital killed at least four people and wounded 40 others today, officials said, in the latest bloodshed blamed on sympathizers of Somalia's al-Qaida-linked insurgency. Witnesses reported that people in a moving car hurled three grenades at the outdoor terminal, police spokesman Charles Owino said. Government minister Esther Murugi, who spoke after visiting Nairobi's main hospital where the wounded were brought, said six needed emergency surgery. Earlier, a Red Cross official said 12 people were in critical condition.

The blasts are the latest in a string of small arms, bomb, and grenade attacks that have killed scores of people since Kenya sent troops across the border into neighboring Somalia in October. The incursion followed a string of attacks by Somali gunmen on Kenyan soil. Somalia's al-Qaida-linked insurgency vowed revenge and incited sympathizers to carry out attacks in Kenya. "The more you attack us, the more we will become aggressive," Owino said. (More Kenya stories.)

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