Large blast wounds several in Kenyan capital: police

NAIROBI: Several people were wounded in a large explosion outside a mosque in the Kenyan capital Friday, the latest in a string of blasts in Nairobi, police sources and the Kenyan Red Cross said.

"At least 10 people were wounded," a police source said. Kenyan Red Cross officials said they had sent emergency teams after an "explosion near a mosque in Eastleigh", a largely ethnic Somali district of Nairobi.

The blast follows a roadside bomb explosion also in Eastleigh district on Wednesday evening, that killed one person and wounded eight others, as well as a bomb on a bus last month also in Eastleigh that killed seven.

Kenya has suffered a string of attacks often blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants since it invaded Somalia last year.

Kenyan troops, now integrated into an African Union force, seized the Shebab bastion of Kismayo in September, a key southern Somali port, prompting warnings of retaliation from both the insurgents and their Kenyan supporters.

The Shebab have denied involvement in previous similar bombings.

The Muslim Youth Centre (MYC), a Kenyan Islamist group that has pledged its support to the Shebab, were swift to highlight the blast on its Twitter site noting a "boom in Eastleigh", but not claiming responsibility.

Violence in Kenya -- ranging from attacks blamed on Islamists to inter-communal clashes to a police crackdown on a coastal separatist movement -- have raised concerns over security ahead of elections due in March 2013.

Five years ago, elections descended into deadly post-poll killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

Last month, riots broke out in Eastleigh district after the bombing of a bus, with running street battles between demonstrators and the police. (AFP)