At least 29 people have been killed in two deadly shooting attacks in Kenya's coastal districts, the interior ministry has said.
Witnesses said heavily armed men raided a trading centre in the village of Hindi, in Lamu county, and a police station in Gamba, Tana River county, overnight on Saturday.
The Somali militant Islamist group al-Shabab said it was behind the killings.
It has made past claims it conducted various other attacks in the region.
Deputy President William Ruto, who is currently visiting the region, is on his way to Gamba.
Analysis: Mary Harper, BBC News
Al-Shabab is increasingly becoming a regional force. Outside Somalia, Kenya is its main target.
The nature of its attacks there is changing, with a growing use of armed units rather than grenades, improvised explosive devices and single targeted assassinations.
It would be wrong to think of al-Shabab as a purely Somali movement. Young, disaffected Muslim men, many from the Kenyan coast, provide a fertile recruiting ground.
Al-Shabab has a sophisticated propaganda machine, with radio broadcasts in the local Kiswahili language, and Kiswahili websites with instructions on how to make bombs.
The attacks set fire to homes, vehicles and government buildings in the area
A number of people were injured in the two attacks
Witnesses said about a dozen armed men had appeared in Hindi late on Saturday evening and opened fire.
"They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately," area chief Abdallah Shahasi told Reuters.
County commissioner Miiri Njenga told the agency some government offices and properties had been burned down.
All those killed were adult men apart from one teenage boy shot as he tried to flee, the AFP news agency said.
One woman in the town said the attackers had burned down her home but said they did not want to kill women.
"They said they were attacking because Muslims' lands were being taken," she told AFP.
Suspect freed
The Red Cross said another nine people - eight civilians and one police officer - were killed in Gamba, and one person was also missing. The ministry said 20 had died there.
0 comments:
Post a Comment