Gunmen Execute 28 on Kenya Bus near Somalia Border

Local Editor

Gunmen seized a bus in northeastern Kenya near the Somali border early Saturday and executed 28 passengers, in an ambush the police blamed on the Shebab extremist group.

The latest attack allegedly carried out by extremists on Kenyan soil comes after a week in which police raids on mosques in the port city of Mombasa hiked simmering tensions in the troubled city.

"I can confirm... that 28 innocent travellers were brutally executed by the Shebab," regional police chief Noah Mwavinda said, referring to the Somali militant group.

The gunmen ambushed the bus headed for the capital Nairobi a few kilometres after it left Mandera, a town that lies right on the border with Somalia in Kenya's northeastern corner.

Some 60 passengers on board were ordered off the vehicle, with the gunmen separating the travelers into groups of Muslims and non-Muslims.
The militants then boarded the bus again with the non-Muslims and tried to drive off, but the vehicle got stuck.

"So they executed their prisoners" before escaping back into Somalia, Mwavinda said.

Kenya's Red Cross confirmed the death toll in a tweet after its team arrived at the scene.

The executions came after a week that saw one person shot dead and more than 350 people arrested as Kenyan security forces carried out raids on mosques in the port city of Mombasa.

Kenya has suffered a series of attacks since invading Somalia in 2011 to attack the Shebab, later joining an African Union force battling the extremists.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team