Islamists kill 50 in Kenya, some during World Cup screening
Mon Jun 16, 2014 5:05pm GMT
* Worst assault by gunmen since Westgate mall attack
* Al Shabaab tell tourists to quit Kenya "war zone"
* About 10 of 50 killed at World Cup screening venue (Adds al Shabaab claim
of responsibility, details from scene)
By Drazen Jorgic
MPEKETONI, Kenya, June 16 (Reuters) - Somali-linked Islamists have killed at
least 50 people in a Kenyan coastal town, executing men in front of their
families and killing others who had gathered to watch World Cup soccer on
television.
The al Shabaab group said on Monday that its commandos launched Sunday
night's strike on Mpeketoni because Kenya had sent its forces to Somalia and
accused Nairobi of assassinating Muslim scholars, a charge Kenyan officials
have denied.
"Kenya is now officially a war zone and as such any tourists visiting the
country do so at their own peril," it said, after staging the biggest
assault since its gunmen attacked Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in
September, leaving 67 dead.
Mpeketoni, where shells of buildings smouldered and pools of blood congealed
on the streets, is not normally a stopover for foreign visitors on Kenya's
popular coast, but the attack is likely to hurt further an already
struggling tourist industry.
Western nations have in recent weeks tightened their warnings about travel
to Kenya, which has been hit by a spate of recent gun attacks and bombings
in Nairobi and around the main port of Mombasa, though none have been as
serious as Sunday's.
"The attackers were so many and were all armed with guns. They entered the
video hall where we were watching a World Cup match and shot
indiscriminately at us," Meshack Kimani told Reuters, adding about 10 people
were killed there.
"They targeted only men but I was lucky. I escaped by hiding behind the
door," he said.
FAMILIES WATCH MEN KILLED
Other witnesses said those gathering for the screenings fled just before the
attackers arrived but were found in hiding places and then shot. Hotels, a
bank and a police station were also attacked, leaving a trail of dead across
the town.
"The wives who came to identify the bodies said the attackers forced them
and their children to watch as they killed their husbands," said Peter
Kamotho, a tailor volunteering at a makeshift morgue where bodies of 48 men
lay under a cover.
A Reuters witness saw several men with shots directly to the head. Kamotho
said they had been shot at close range.
Muiruri Kinyanjui, the Kenya Red Cross regional director for the coastal
area, said the death toll was at least 50 but could rise because many
residents were still unaccounted for while others had suffered serious
injuries.
Many people fled to nearby forests for safety.
Some of the wounded were taken to a hospital in Lamu, a historic Arab
trading port that is a big tourist attraction about 30 km (20 miles) from
Mpeketoni, which is on the coastline between Mombasa and the Somali border
in the north.
Kenyan hotels say bookings have dropped sharply because of recent attacks
and Western travel warnings. Some hotels on the coast say they face closure,
while some hoteliers inland who offer safaris say reservations are down by
30 percent or more.
Witnesses said gunmen roamed for hours into Monday morning. Issah Birido,
who hid up a tree shrouded in darkness, said he heard them chanting slogans
and speaking in Somali, a language many Kenyan citizens with Somali origins
also speak.
WORLD CUP ALERTS
Kenya, which has blamed al Shabaab for the previous attacks, had said it
would be on alert during the World Cup to ensure public showings of matches
were kept safe.
Although the gunmen struck a range of sites, the assault is likely to
heighten worries in other African states such as Nigeria, which is battling
the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, that venues hosting World Cup screenings
could be vulnerable.
After Westgate, al Shabaab had warned of more attacks, saying it was
determined to drive out Kenyan forces battling the Islamist militants in
Somalia along with other African peacekeepers. Kenya has repeatedly said it
would not withdraw.
The al Shabaab statement also referred to the killing in drive-by shootings
of at least three high-profile Kenyan Muslim preachers, seen as sympathetic
to militant Islam. Supporters of the clerics have said their deaths were
extra-judicial killings.
Kenya has denied the charge. Police have not found the gunmen behind those
shootings.
Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told a news conference before travelling
to the area that the security forces would find the perpetrators, fending
off questions about public anger at the failure of the government to do more
to secure Kenya.
In an apparent swipe at political opponents, he said the government was
cautioning "political leaders ... to desist from destructive politics and
ethnic profiling that may be responsible for this heinous act". He did not
elaborate. (Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa, Humphrey
Malalo and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Reuters Television in Mpeketoni and
Feisal Omar in Mogadishu; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Tom Heneghan)