Kenya launches security operation along border with Somalia

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya security forces said Tuesday that a major surveillance operation was underway along the border with Somalia, even as the Kenyan and American navy patrol the Indian Ocean coast on the lookout for terror strikes and illegal migration.
According to Kenya Navy Commander Major General Pasteur Awita, dozens of American Navy officers from the Horn of Africa Combined Forces based in Djibouti have teamed up with the Kenya navy to monitor the country's territorial waters.
Awita told the Americans have been operating on Kenyan water since 15 June and will be in the country for the next one month.
He said that since last year's terrorist bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, the Kenya Navy has been on high alert to counter movements of illegal migrants along the coastal waters.
Intelligence information has it that terrorists of the Al Qaeda network operate sleeper cells in war-torn Somalia and might be using Kenyan waters during their operations, the naval chief indicated.
Awita's disclosure came as four Al-Quaeda suspects arrested in connection with the bombing of the Israeli hotel in Mombasa were arraigned in court Tuesday.
Director of prosecutions Philip Mugor said intense investigations were going on, and that several other terror suspects arrested recently will soon appear in court.
The authorities in Kenya also sealed the frontier with Somalia last Sunday, banning all flights to and from that country.
A chief suspect in the hotel bombing, Mohamed Saleh Nabhan is believed to have fled to Somalia after the attack.