NAIROBI, Kenya - Hundreds of Kenyan youth who have trained with al-Qaeda-linked militants in neighbouring Somalia have returned home and now pose a major security threat to this East African nation, a top police official says.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said a Kenyan man trained by al-Shabab militants in Somalia hurled a grenade into a church last Sunday, killing two people and wounding 15.
Iteere released a photo of a man known only by the alias Amar.
He said witnesses at the church were able to identify Amar as the person who threw the grenade Sunday. After the grenade exploded some church members attempted to pursue Amar but the suspect fired a gun at his pursuers, Iteere said.
Some church members who survived the blast said they suspected the attack was the result of a land dispute.
However, Iteere said an al-Shabab leader ù Sheik Ismael Ali ù claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to dispatch suicide bombers.