Four killed in clashes after 'execution' of cleric in Mombasa

Young Muslims set fire to a church, burned tyres and clashed with police in Kenya's main port city of Mombasa yesterday after the killing of an Islamic cleric that his followers blamed on security forces.

Sheikh Ibrahim Omar's death ignited religious tensions in the commercial and tourism hub in east Africa's largest economy, two weeks after Islamist militants killed at least 67 people in a raid on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall.

Four people were killed during the riots, government officials said, three suffered stab wounds and one died from gunfire. Seven more wounded are in hospital.

The imam and his three companions were killed in a drive-by shooting late on Thursday, a killing that mirrored the murder of another cleric last year which provoked days of deadly riots.

Omar was found dead in a car hit by more than a dozen bullets, television images showed. Radical preachers have said the killing on Thursday was an "execution" by the police, claims the force has denied.

Youths torched a Salvation Army church and temporarily blocked the main road into the city. Kenyan police in riot gear fired gunshots and teargas to break up the crowd.