NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) At least 14 people were killed in an attack early Tuesday in the country’s north by al-Shabab, Islamic extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia, a Kenyan official said.
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Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab said his group was behind the attack saying it was meant to “revenge killings of Muslims in Somalia and Kenya by Kenyan security forces”.
Al Shabab’s activities are mainly focused within Somalia, but they have also launched attacks in Uganda and Kenya.
By The Associated Press on July 6, 2015.
“We believe the assailants are members of Al Shebab terror group who are operating from sleeper cells in Mandera town”, Saleh told reporters in Garissa, where in April the Shebab massacred 148 people at the town’s university, majority students.
They attacked at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
The heavily armed men who carried out the attack are said to have crossed in from Somalia at about midnight.
After the Garissa attack, critics accused the security forces of responding too slowly, one reason cited for the number killed. “Most of those killed are workers from upcountry”, said Alex Nkoyo, commissioner for Mandera County.
“These were al Shabaab from the nature of the attack”.
The Islamic militants have stepped up their attacks during Islam’s holy fasting month of Ramadan.
According to the witnesses, the militants were throwing grenades at the victims’ tents in the village and then opened fire on them while they were sleeping, the paper reported.
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In 2013, Shabab killed 68 people in an attack on Nairobi’s upscale Westgate shopping mall.
