Violence follows the death of Muslim leader who is said
to have been assassinated by security forces in Mombasa.
Sky News/BBC
Mombasa, Kenya
October 4, 2013
Four people have died during riots in Kenya sparked by the killing of a popular Muslim cleric and three of his associates, according to government officials.
Kenya's National Crisis Centre said three people died of stab wounds in the port city of Mombasa, while a man was killed by gunfire earlier in the day. Seven more wounded are in hospital.
Kenyan police in riot gear have fired tear gas to disperse crowds, protesting after the apparent assassination of a popular Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Omar, who preached at a mosque linked in the past to Somali Islamist militants.
Rioters set fire to a church in the area, it is reported.
Close associates of the victim said it was the latest in a string of extra-judicial killings of Muslims by Kenyan security forces, an allegation denied by the police. Robert Kitur, Mombasa County Police Commander, said: "The police have nothing to do with the shooting. That's not how we operate."
Salim Abdi was the only person in side the car to survive the attack and some of the protesters were detained by police.
The latest shooting took place late on Thursday night, just a few hundred yards from where another outspoken cleric, Aboud Rogo, was shot dead in his vehicle in August 2012 in a strikingly similar attack.
The killing of Rogo, who was also linked to al Shabaab by both the Kenyan government and the US, unleashed deadly riots in Mombasa's run-down neighbourhoods where he commanded a loyal support base.
Like Rogo, Omar was popular among Muslim youths in Mombasa and along Kenya's Indian Ocean coastline, where many Muslims feel marginalised by the predominantly Christian Nairobi government.
On Friday anti-riot police patrolled Mombasa's Majengo neighbourhood, home to Masjid Mussa, a mosque where Omar gave sermons. Businesses in the area remained shut.
Sheikh Abubaker Sharif, who was close to Rogo and Omar, and faces charges of inciting last year's Mombasa riots, said: "They have killed Muslims again. We know it's the police."
Sources & Videos:
http://news.sky.com/story/1150247/deadly-riots-erupt-after-kenya-cleric-killed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24398548
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24398548
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