Explosives Seized and 19 Arrested in Suspected Plot in Uganda

Monday September 15, 2014

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KAMPALA, Uganda — The police in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, seized “substantial amounts of explosives” and suicide vests in raids on what they said was a terrorist cell with links to the Shabab, a militant group based in Somalia that was planning an imminent attack, a Ugandan official said in an interview on Sunday.

The police arrested 19 people in the operation on Saturday, and Information Minister Rose Namayanja urged the public to “remain vigilant” as Uganda continues its investigation.

“The operation is still going on,” Ms. Namayanja said. “We just want to ensure that we exhaust all the leads so that there are no more terrorist cells.”

Ugandan authorities say they have increased security at hotels and other important sites, including Entebbe International Airport, since making the arrests.

Last week, a senior Shabab official said that the Shabab would attack Americans in New York and Washington and “capture Kenya and Uganda.”

“Anything could have happened” if the plot had not been foiled, Ms. Namayanja said.

She said the government believed that the Kampala cell had ties to the Shabab, but did not provide evidence linking the two, saying only that Shabab fighters had attacked Uganda before.

Kenya is preparing to mark the first anniversary of a Shabab attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in which 67 people were killed.

In 2010, the Shabab bombed restaurants in Uganda where people were watching a World Cup soccer match on television.

Both Kenya and Uganda contribute troops as part of the African Union peacekeeping force battling the Shabab in Somalia.

The militant group has threatened more attacks since the killing of its leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, in American airstrikes this month.

Last week, the group attacked two military convoys near the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and on Saturday gunmen killed a senior Somali national security officer in his car, according to local police officials and a Shabab spokesman.

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