How ISIS Jihadi women in suicide vest tried to blow up Mombasa police

Image result for isis“Assalam aleykum, how are you? Am now in Syria … Tell everyone not to look for me am doing very fine.”

Less than 48 hours after Ms Twafiqa Dahir sent that message to her cousin Rahama Abnasir in 2015 using the messaging application Telegram, saying she had joined the Islamic State terror group (also known as Isis), the police rubbished these claims.

Terrorism has always been a mainly male affair, and ISIS was one of Kenya’s least concerns as East Africa is thousands of kilometres away from its hotbed in the Middle East, analysts argued.

But when three suspected female terrorists were shot dead by police as they tried to attack the Mombasa Central Police Station, two facts were conspicuous: women and terrorism.Image result for isis women mombasa

ISIS was the first and still remains the only terror group to have claimed responsibility for the botched Mombasa raid even though Al-Shaabab, which has carried out several large-scale attacks in Kenya in recent years, was initially thought to be responsible.

Ms Maimuna Abdirahman Hussein, Ms Ramla Abdirahman Hussein and Ms Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah approached the station posing as ordinary citizens who had come to file a complaint with the police.

Two police officers at the reporting desk then asked one of the women to remove her veil to reveal her face. She reportedly defied the order and jumped over the counter, holding a dagger that she had concealed under her buibui.

A witness, Ms Salma Mohammed, said one officer was stabbed in the neck and chest, prompting his female colleague to flee.Image result for isis women mombasa

Two policeman were wounded in the attack in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

The women were wearing niqabs when they arrived at the central police station to report a stolen phone at about 10.30am.

Mombasa police chief Parterson Maelo said: “While the officers were questioning them about the particulars of the stolen phone one of them drew a knife and another threw a petrol bomb at the officers of the report office.”Image result for isis women mombasa

In the attack the three women were shot by police.

Bomb experts were said to be at the scene to detonate an explosive vest worn by one of the women.

Kenya is under constant threat of attack from supporters of the Somali militant group al-Shabab, which has said it would retaliate after Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011.

 

 

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