At least two people were killed Friday when Kenyan police fired live rounds and teargas to suppress a protest by Muslims demanding the release of a radical Jamaican cleric, a hospital source said.A medic in a Nairobi clinic said several people had been admitted for treatment. "You can see one of them is dead and his body is lying there. Another has died on the way to hospital," he said."We have treated many people here... you can even see those lying there are bleeding and they have bullet wounds," said the official who did not want to be named.A Muslim rights group official said at least five people were killed, but that toll could not be immediately corroborated by police or medics.Anti-riot police battled scores of stone-throwing protestors, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and waving banners that read "Release Al Faisal, he is innocent."Abdullah al-Faisal, who is on a global terror watchlist and served four years in a British jail for inciting racial hatred, has been in Kenyan custody since last week after the authorities tried and failed to deport him.Police charged at the rioters, surrounded the Jamiah mosque in central Nairobi and used water cannons to repel them as an ambulance picked up injured people, including some reporters.
An AFP photographer saw one demonstrator firing back at the police from inside the mosque compound. At least four members of Kenya's security forces were also wounded in the battles, that lasted several hours.
"War against Muslims is intolerable," read one placard, while a protestor waved a black flag with Arabic inscription and another brandished Osama bin Laden's portrait.Crowds of by-standers also joined the chaos, throwing rocks and calling the Muslims, many of them of Somali descent, foreigners and chanting "Kenya yetu," Swahili for "Kenya is ours," or "Ua," Swahili for "kill" as the police charged.The riot highlighted long-standing grievances by Kenya's minority Muslims of being unfairly targeted by security forces and perceived neglect by previous regimes in appointment to government posts.Since the setting up of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit in 2003, Muslim rights groups have complained of repeated police harassment, arbitrary arrests and rendition of Muslims suspected of terrorism.Faisal's lawyers and rights groups have complained that the cleric is being held without charge.The December 31 arrest of Faisal, who police and immigration officials said violated immigration regulations by preaching, is the latest in a string of protests by the Muslims.Faisal, 45, was arrested in Britain in 2003 after spending years urging his audiences to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners.Kenya's attempts to deport the cleric, first to Tanzania and then to Gambia have failed due to the refusal by authorities and airlines to grant him entry.Tf.SF Pictures
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