3 dead, several injured in twin attacks in Mombasa: officials

Mombasa (Kenya): At least three people were killed and several others injured today in twin attacks in Kenya`s port city of Mombasa, officials said.

One blast occurred at a well-known beach hotel, the Reef Hotel, in the Nyari area of the city, and the other in the Mwembe Tayari area, near the city centre, Kenya`s disaster operations centre said. The Kenyan interior ministry said three people were killed and scores were wounded in Mwembe Tayari after a grenade was thrown into a crowd. It also said an IED exploded at or near the hotel, without causing casualties. "We had two incidents: one at the bus station where three people have lost their lives. In the second incident that occurred near a hotel in Nyali there were no casualties," a police official told AFP. Muslim-majority Mombasa, one of the main gateways to east Africa, has been hit by a wave of sectarian violence in recent months, with the city being rocked by a string of attacks or attempted attacks and the government engaged in a major crackdown against Islamists suspected of being connected to neighbouring Somalia`s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels.