Somali Gunmen Attack British Tourists at Resort in Kenya

NY Times report Somali Gunmen Attack British Tourists at Kiwayu Resort in Kenya:

A boatload of Somali gunmen attacked an exclusive beach resort in Kenya on Sunday, killing a British tourist and kidnapping his wife before racing back into Somalia, Western diplomats said.

American officials were initially concerned that the strike might have been connected to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and that the gunmen were Islamist militants looking for Americans. But Western diplomats were leaning away from that theory on Sunday night, though they said they were still uncertain about the motive for the attack.

The resort, Kiwayu Safari Village, is just south of the Somali border and is one of the most expensive destinations in Kenya, where guests stay in $1,300-a-night bungalows at the water’s edge and are summoned to feasts at night by the trumpeting of a conch shell. Prince William and Mick Jagger are said to have vacationed there.

The gunmen attacked under the cover of darkness, zooming up to the beach in a skiff shortly after midnight, the Western diplomats said.

It was not clear how the British tourist was killed, but officials said the gunmen sped away with the dead man’s wife, heading toward Ras Kamboni, Somalia, a well-known hide-out for Islamist militants.

Another report on the same incident from the BBC here:

A British man has been killed and his wife kidnapped from a Kenyan resort, Kenyan police say.

The married couple were staying at the luxury Kiwayu Safari Village, north of Lamu Island, when armed men attacked.

Kenyan officials said a police officer saw six men taking away a woman in a speed boat.

Tourist resorts have not been targeted before but the site is near Somalia and Somali pirates could be involved, a BBC reporter says.

Pirates? Looking for a new means of making money? The long term prospects for this approach seems pretty slim.