World Bulletin / News Desk

A Muslim cleric into joining the Somali rebel group al Shabaab was killed in a shootout with police on Sunday, Kenyan authorities said.

Police said Khalid Ahmed, a Somali with a Kenyan passport, had been a close friend of Aboud Rogo, a slain Muslim cleric.

Senior police official Thomas Sangut said Ahmed was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police at his family home in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa.

Two policemen were wounded, and a hand grenade, two gun magazines and 68 rounds of ammunition were recovered, Sangut told a news conference.

Aboud Rogo was killed in September last year when his car was sprayed with gunfire in Mombasa. Supporters blamed the attack on security services and it sparked days of deadly rioting that exposed deep social, political and sectarian divisions in Kenya's mainly Muslim coastal region. Kenyan police denied killing Rogo.

"Just like his slain friend Aboud Rogo, Khalid was a Muslim cleric and has been teaching madrassas (Islamic religious schools), from where we believe he was recruiting young innocent Kenyans to join terrorist organizations," Sangut said.