NAIROBI, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police on Saturday offered a 20,000 U.S. dollar bounty for information that will lead to the arrest of a key terror suspect behind a series of attacks in the coastal region including assassinations and execution of attackers.
The police also circulated a photo of Ali Zira who is a wanted criminal associated with the killing in 2014 of a prominent businessman in the coastal town of Malindi.
"Security agencies now appeal to any individual with information of the suspect to give information to the police," says the report released by the police, urging Kenyans to collaborate with the police in order to rid the country of terror elements.
According to the security agencies, Zira and two accomplices shot Ahmed Bakshwen three times in the head while in his car, an attack that was later linked to the Al-Shabaab terror group.
"The suspect who is on the run and is wanted by the police is said to be privy to Al-Shabaab activities in the coastal region and is involved in the planning and execution of attacks," the police said in its report.
The police said terrorists who are fleeing increased attacks in southern Somalia by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces have reportedly dispatched five militants to lead the planned attacks in Kenya.
The police said they have identified Zira as a key Al-Shabaab operative, who is believed to be an assassin in the coast and is said to have been the mastermind of numerous attacks in the coastal region.
"Zira is also associated with several other murders and assassination including that of Police reservist Ahmed Salim Aliyan and Faiz Mbalaus in Malindi, barely a week after Bakshwen's killing," said the police.
The East African nation faces insecurity as bomb attacks using improvised explosive devices and grenades have become more frequent in the northeastern and coastal regions since Kenyan solders entered Somalia in 2011 to secure the shared border with the lawless country.
The police officers have also stepped up security in all key installations around the country particularly along the border with neighboring Somalia where Al-Qaeda-linked fighters are waging an insurgency to avert reprisals.
The police report further shows that Zira is suspected to be among the masterminds of the attacks against non-locals in the coastal region.
He is believed to have been involved in the June 2014 Mpeketoni attacks where more than sixty civilians were killed in one of the deadliest attacks in the coastal region.
Zira is said to have joined the militant group in 2012 when he left for Somalia where he received training and fought alongside the Al-Shabaab fighters.
He later sneaked back to the country where he set up base in Malindi, working closely with another wanted terrorist Ahmed Said Omar alias Dogo.
It is reported that Zira is a gun toting assassin closely linked to Hussein Said Omar alias Babli, a most wanted terror suspect who was gunned down by security officers after a fierce gun battle in Bamburi.
