Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Kenyan police have recovered a trove of documents and other evidence from Mombasa's Masjid Mussa, which they estimate will take two months or more to review, Kenya's The Standard reported Tuesday (February 4th).
Items recovered include an AK-47 rifle, machetes and other iron implements, jihadist flags, stun guns, hundreds of textbooks, maps, registers, pictures, information on alleged spies and "Muslim traitors", and terrorist training manuals.
One recovered document reportedly lists the names of militants across East Africa, with references as far as Burundi.
Police also found an audio recording calling for Muslim volunteers to carry out attacks on countries oppressing Somali Muslims, understood to mean countries contributing troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia, and they seized more than 200 compact-discs and memory cards with pictures of jihadist training camps in Somalia and Syria and audio instructions on light weapons use, combat and doctrine.
"We will need two months to go through these CDs and documents," said Mombasa County Police Commander Robert Kitur.
Also among the items recovered were three laptops, which have been sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Cybercrime Unit for analysis.
Mombasa CID Commander Henry Ondiek defended the raid on Masjid Mussa, which some Muslim leaders decried as desecration of a holy site.
"If you look at the penal code and all other legal literature in Kenya, there is nowhere [that says] police are barred from entering a place where crimes like terrorism are being committed," he said. "We shall continue storming mosques and anywhere where serious crimes such as planning mass attacks on innocent people are being planned."