Nairobi: Kenyan police were holding an al-Qaeda suspect accused of involvement in several terrorist attacks last night following a daring snatch operation across the border in neighbouring Somalia, writes Declan Walsh in Nairobi
Armed western security agents, either American or Israeli, reportedly orchestrated the operation in the lawless Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The al-Qaeda suspect was arrested at a hospital in a northern city suburb, apparently after being wounded in a gun battle several days earlier.
Nurses at the Kaysaney hospital told one reporter the man was a Yemeni national travelling on a South African passport.
Other witnesses named the man as Abikar Mohamed Ali, a businessmawho sold electrical goods.
Militiamen loyal to a local warlord snatched the man and transferred him to between four and six armed plainclothes white men.
He was subsequently flown to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Internal Security Minister Mr Chris Murungaru confirmed the operation yesterday, describing the man as an "al- Qaeda operative" wanted for questioning in relation to "multiple terrorist attacks in east Africa".
Early reports differed on whether the white men who co-ordinated the arrest were American or Israeli.
A spokesman for Somalia's fragile transitional government, which was not involved in the operation, said he believed they were with the FBI.
Other reports suggested the involvement of Israeli agents.
The US embassy in Nairobi refused to comment.
Mr Murungaru described the operation as a joint effort between Kenyan security forces and "some peace-loving Somali leaders" but did not comment on involvement of any third countries.
Due to security considerations "it would not be prudent to disclose much about the case at this time", he said.
Both Israel and the US have an interest in hunting al-Qaeda suspects in east Africa. Last November Israeli tourists were targeted in two co-ordinated attacks on the Kenyan coast. A suicide bombing of the Paradise Hotel resulted in 18 deaths, two of them Israeli, while a missile attack on a departing Israeli jet plane narrowly failed.
Four years earlier, in 1998, an al-Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Nairobi killed almost 230 people. An almost simultaneous attack on the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania left another 12 dead.
At least one suspect in last November's attacks, 23-year-old Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, was thought to have subsequently slipped across the border into Somalia.
The US has frequently cited the war-wracked nation, which has no central government, as a potential haven for terrorists.