Security officials in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa have said that they have arrested two people who were driving a car with two improvised bombs meant to attack a location in the city.

Security experts say intelligence reports suggest that the two suspects were planning to attack an unspecified area in the city with the least given opportunity.

Police officials say they had trailed the suspects after intercepting telephone communications they were making with their accomplices in Somalia when the attack was being planned.

The police said the bombs were two home-made and were found in the car along with a mobile phone which serves as the bomb detonator.

Last year, militants from Al Shabab in neighboring country, Somalia attacked the Westgate Shopping Mall in the capital, Nairobi in which 68 people were reportedly killed.

One of the men arrested were said to be a Kenyan and the other of Somali origin. Officials say radical Kenyan citizens have been aiding militants in their operations in Kenya.

Spokesman for the Mombasa Criminal Investigation Department, Henry Ondiek told reporters that the arrest of the two men were due to intelligence reports the department received from their partners in both Kenya and Somalia.

“We were tipped off that the two were headed for an attack on an unspecified place and we laid an ambush, we have not established where the target was, but we have detained two terror suspects who were in the vehicle,” he said.

Mombasa Police chief, Robert Kitur said he suspects Al Shabab to be behind the bomb which would have caused massive destruction in the city.

“Our first suspicion is that they are al Shabaab especially because of their origin, if they had detonated, they would have caused massive destruction,’’ he said.

The Al Shabaab militants have launched several attacks on Kenya in what it described as Kenya violating its territorial integrity. Kenyan troops are in Somalia trying to help stabilize the country.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com

[adrotate group=”15″]