NAIROBI - Kenyan authorities have detained two German nationals who they accuse of being members of the Somali Islamist group al Shabab, which has been blamed for a series of attacks on Kenyan soil, police said Tuesday. "We arrested the two foreigners following information that they had traveled to Somalia and joined the militant group fighting the government," John Mulaulu, Kenya's acting head of the anti-terrorism police, told Reuters. "The two were arrested on Aug. 29 within the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, when they arrived from Somalia," he said, adding that both men were German.

The police were questioning the two men over their alleged links to al Shabab, which has carried out a series of attacks on Kenya, including an assault by gunmen on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall last September which left 67 dead. Al Shabab has threatened attacks in east Africa and the United States as punishment for a U.S. missile strike last week that killed the rebel group's leader Ahmed Godane. Mulaulu said the two Germans had yet to be charged, adding they had valid passports but not visas.

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- Reuters