Airport, ferry were targeted by terrorists

A pipe bomb fitted in the dashboard of this vehicle is among the explosives recovered by the police in Mombasa, March 19, 2014. The cache of weapons that were recovered is the kind Al-Shabaab has been employing to devastating effect in Mogadishu. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA 

In Summary
Attacks would have been carried out using explosives loaded in three vehicles

 By Nation Reporter
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The Al-Shabaab had planned to hit three major installations in Mombasa in a “sequenced and near-simultaneous attacks” targeting hundreds of innocent civilians.

The attacks would have been carried out using vehicle–borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), according to crucial intelligence information obtained by the Daily Nation.

The planned attacks were “very ambitious” and would have been the worst in Kenya’s history had they succeeded — probably far worse than the 1998 US Embassy bombing and Westgate, Kenyan security sources close to the investigation said.

The first installation to be hit would have been Moi International Airport. The plan was to storm the airport security gates shortly before 2 am with a suicide commando team before detonating a vehicle packed with high-grade plastic explosives at the International Arrivals Terminal.

The terrorists’ intended target was a group of foreign nationals, estimated to be over 300, on board two early morning international flights and who would have been at the arrival lounge at that particular time.

The second target was a ferry plying the narrow Likoni water channel linking Mombasa Island with the South Coast mainland.

“The plan was to detonate a 4X4 packed with explosives by remote control as the ferry was mid channel. The attack was timed to coincide with the early morning rush hour when the ferry would normally have been packed with close to 3,000 people.

It is believed the Toyota four-wheel-drive vehicle that was found with explosives at the Changamwe police station on March 18 was marked for the ferry hit.

The third target was the Nakumatt Likoni branch located only a short distance from the ferry ramp on the island side. This attack was designed to occur simultaneously with the one on the ferry.

“If you can synchronise two attacks well, you maximise the impact. The ferry and the supermarket hits were primarily designed to sow fear among Kenyans; whereas the airport attack was targeting Westerners,” one of the sources noted.

The whereabouts of the other two vehicle bombs remain a mystery. Sources suggest it is plausible they may have since been dismantled and the explosives “carted away to other locations”