⁍ Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro said militants attacked the village of Kitaya in Tanzania’s rural Mtwara region bordering Mozambique.
⁍ He did not specify the number of people killed, nor give a date for the attack.
⁍ It was the first time authorities in Tanzania have acknowledged that an escalating Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique with links to Islamic State is also active in Tanzania.
– “Terrorists numbering 300, coming from Mozambique, attacked our station and the village of Kitaya, and committed crimes and they killed.” That from Tanzania’s Inspector General of Police, Simon Sirro, in an interview with Azam TV, per Reuters. Sirro didn’t specify the number of dead, but he said police had arrested some of the militants and were interrogating others. It was the first time authorities in Tanzania have acknowledged that an escalating Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique with links to Islamic State is also active in Tanzania. It was the first time authorities in Tanzania have acknowledged that an escalating Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique with links to Islamic State is also active in Tanzania. ISIS claimed the attack in a message on one of its Telegram channels on Oct. 15, which said its fighters had attacked an army barracks in the village a day earlier, killing a number of personnel and capturing weapons and ammunition. Attacks in Tanzania have been far more sporadic and less deadly than those in Mozambique, where the militants have killed hundreds of people since their first attack in 2017. Analysts say the group has transformed since then into a formidable force that can seize and hold significant locations.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tanzania-security-mozambique/militants-from-mozambique-staged-deadly-attack-in-tanzania-police-say-idUSKBN2781PB