NAIROBI, Kenya, May 30 – Emailed attack threats sent this week to the Norwegian embassy in Kenya and two local news organisations were a hoax, police said on Saturday.
"So far investigators have established that the threat was a hoax generated from a public cyber cafe in downtown Nairobi," Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said in a statement.
The message was sent on Wednesday by a group calling itself "Warrior Brave" and accused Kenya of "claiming Muslim territory" and detaining pirates handed over by foreign forces after their capture off the Somali coast.
Nairobi has applied to the United Nations for an extension of its maritime border, claiming larger sections of the continental seabed that would impact on drilling rights for the region’s mineral potential.
The group accused Norway of backing Kenya’s bid.
Many of the pirates arrested by international naval patrols in recent months have been handed over for prosecution to Kenya or the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland.
It also said the Nation and Standard media groups were targets because they "are the enemy of Allah," but did not elaborate.
Police said investigations by security agencies "have ruled out any credibility in the threat," adding efforts were underway to identify the author and have him prosecuted.
Two Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist attacks in 1998 and 2002 left more than 200 people killed at the American embassy and an Israeli-owned resort hotel near the costal city of Mombasa.
Nairobi has recently voiced fears that extremist Islamic groups operating in Somalia could target Kenya, and many intelligence officials posted in the Kenyan capital have warned that attack alert levels are high.
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