Al-Shabab strikes town in northeast Kenya
July 7, 2015
At least 14 people died and 11 were wounded when gunmen attacked a livestock market on the outskirts of the town of Mandera, Kenya, according to state officials and the Red Cross.
Mandera is located in the northeastern corner of Kenya, near the border with Ethiopia and war-torn Somalia. While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the Somali-based Islamist extremist group al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in the region.
"People were sleeping when the attack happened; they just came and hurled explosives in the houses," said Alex Ole Nkoyo, Mandera county commissioner.
"These were al-Shabab from the nature of the attack. They used explosives and guns," Nkoyo continued, adding that most of the victims were workers from a nearby quarry.
Kenya Red Cross reported that it had transported 11 injured people to the hospital, evacuating the critically wounded by medical airplane to Nairobi.
The al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, which has been fighting to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government for years, has been increasingly targeting Kenya, particularly during Islam's holy month of Ramadan.
The group's deadliest attack to date was at a university in the Kenyan town of Garissa in April, when four gunmen killed 148 people. Before that, al-Shabab militants attacked the Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing 67 in September 2013.
es/jil (AFP, Reuters)