Reason that might have made terrorist choose riverside hotel

Image result for i1998 us embassy bombing nairobiWestern countries and their interests overseas remain prime targets for international terrorist groups like the Al-shabab of Somalia and Al Qaida.

There are many reasons a terrorist group may consider a country to be a potential target for attacks. AL-shabab, for example, considers any countries which have supported military action against the group to be legitimate targets.

August 7 is Kenya’s 9/11, the day of the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history. On this day 21 years ago, a truck bomb destroyed the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, killing 213 people, most of them Kenyans.

15 years later an  attack on Kenya’s Westgate Mall in Nairobi took headlines as the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya since the 1998 truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy, which killed at least 67 people, including four attackers, with 175 non-fatal injuries.Image result for westgate mall attack

The mall is said to be partly owned by an Israeli while many businesses there were operated by Israeli’s like the ArtCaffe owned by Alex Traitenberg.
But besides the ownership of the mall, Kenya-Israel have deeper connections, some of which are historical.

Major hotels popular with tourists or Westerners across the globe have been prime targets of jihadist groups for years.Image result for DusitD2 hotel

14 Riverside exclusive office park hosts offices to a number of multinationals including Reckitt Benckiser, Amadeus Global Travel Distribution Ltd, Colgate Palmolive (EA) Limited and Cellulant Kenya Limited.

It also houses dusitD2, a top-end hotel with roots in Bangkok, University of Nairobi’s Chiromo Campus and Brighter Monday Limited.

The Bangkok-based hotel and resort chain, Dusit International, opened its five-star hotel in Nairobi in 2014, dubbed DusitD2 Nairobi.

In2018 , DusitD2 Nairobi received global recognition from the World Luxury Hotel Awards after being awarded The Best Luxury Business Hotel 2018 in East Africa.

The awarding was as a result of its world class services that tourist enjoy in the upmarket hotel and office complex. 

A British man and an American woman are among the casualties. Their bodies were identified based on identification documents.

It won a similar recognition at the World Luxury Hotel Awards in 2017, at a ceremony held in Switzerland.

The hotel, which achieved the five-star rating in 2016 from the Tourism Regulatory Authority, is located on a development christened 14 Riverside in the upmarket Lavington estate, Nairobi, owned by the Sanghrajka family, the proprietors of Tile & Carpet Centre.

DusitD2 Nairobi is a 100-bed hotel and targets business travellers and local meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions industry.

Here are some of the major attacks over the past decade:

Mogadishu: Shabaab attacksImage result for radio andalus kismaayo kenya

Fighters from the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab have carried out a wave of attacks against hotels in the Somali capital over the past 10 years, using car bombs and commando raids.

Between 2015 and 2017, more than 100 people were killed in about a dozen attacks, including a double car bombing on the Dayah Hotel near the Somali parliament and state house that left at least 28 people dead.

Ivory Coast: beach resort under fire

On 13 March 2016, 19 people, including foreigners, were killed when gunmen stormed the resort of Grand-Bassam, firing on the beach and hotels just 20 kilometres away from the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan. Al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed responsibility.

Burkina Faso: jihadist raids

On 15 January 2016, 30 people, mainly Westerners, were killed in jihadist raids on the upscale Splendid hotel and a restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attacks were claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Murabitoun group of one-eyed Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The assault lasted about 12 hours before being ended by Burkina Faso armed forces backed by French troops.

Mali: nine-hour siege

On 20 November 2015, a siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako left 20 people dead, including 14 foreigners. Guests and staff were held by gunmen for nine hours. Al-Murabitoun claimed the attack.

Tunisia: beach shooting spree

On 26 June 2015, a student went on a shooting spree in the resort town of Sousse, in the north-east of Tunisia. A total of 38 tourists, including 30 Britons, were killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Libya: Islamic State assault

The Islamic State group claimed a 27 January 2015 assault on Tripoli’s luxury Corinthia hotel. Nine people including five foreigners were killed in the raid.

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