NAIROBI — Police fired tear gas to disperse Kenyans who attacked ethnic Somalis in a Somali-dominated district of the capital on Monday following a weekend bomb attack. A crowd threw stones and broke into Somali homes and shops in anger at Sunday's attack on a minibus which killed at least nine people in Nairobi's “Little Mogadishu” district. Ethnic Somalis, some armed with machetes, hurled rocks at their attackers, who responded with sling shots and stones. Paramilitary police fired volleys of teargas as they tried to prise the battling factions apart. “We are trying to create a buffer zone so that people cannot cross over,” Nairobi regional police commander Moses Ombati told reporters, pointing to a road that he said formed a rough boundary between the two communities. “These people are neighbors and business partners who need each other, so I don't think it will last long,” he said. Authorities have blamed Somali militants and their sympathizers for grenade and gun attacks in Kenya since Nairobi sent soldiers into neighboring Somalia last year to drive out Al-Shabab rebels, an Islamist group linked to al Qaeda. Attacks have intensified since Kenyan and African Union forces launched an offensive seven weeks ago against Al-Shabab's last major urban stronghold, the Somali port of Kismayu, forcing the rebels to flee. Two Kenyan soldiers were shot dead in the eastern town of Garissa, which is a rear base for Kenya troops fighting in Somalia as part of the regional African Union force. Somalia-related violence and growing separatist sentiment in its Indian Ocean coastal strip have added to security concerns ahead of March presidential polls in a country where 1,200 died in post-election violence in 2007. In the Eastleigh district of the capital Nairobi, crowds poured through the streets chanting “Somalis must go!”, hurling rocks and smashing windows of some Somali apartments. Rioters jeered police who fired warnings shots in the air, demanding the government improve security in a district that has borne the brunt of the grenade and gun attacks. — Reuters
