Somali Islamists execute 28 non-Muslims on Kenyan bus
Sat Nov 22, 2014 5:30pm GMT
* Witness says non-Muslims were singled out to be shot
* Al Shabaab says attack was revenge for raids on mosques
* Deputy president: attackers will be pursued in Kenya and Somalia (Adds
comments from deputy president, British minister)
By George Obulutsa
NAIROBI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab
said it had staged an attack in Kenya on Saturday in which gunmen ordered
non-Muslims off a bus and shot 28 dead, while sparing Muslim passengers.
Three of the group led out to be killed saved their lives by reciting verses
of the Koran for the militants, a local security official said.
Al Shabaab said its men had ambushed the Nairobi-bound bus outside the town
of Mandera, near Kenya's border with Somalia and Ethiopia, and killed the
non-Muslims in retaliation for raids on mosques in the city of Mombasa.
On Monday, police in the port city shot dead one man and arrested almost 400
others when they raided four mosques that they said were being used to
recruit militants and stash weapons.
"The Mujahideen successfully carried out an operation near Mandera early
this morning, which resulted in 28 crusaders perishing, as revenge for the
crimes committed by the Kenyan crusaders against our Muslim brethren in
Mombasa," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, al Shabaab's spokesman, said in a
statement.
Many Islamist militants use the term "crusaders" to describe Christians or
non-Muslims in general.
KILLERS HEAD FOR BORDER
Police Inspector General David Kimaiyo said 19 men and nine women had been
killed. "Preliminary reports indicate that the attackers, who were heavily
armed, later fled towards the border into Somali," he told reporters.
A witness, who asked not to be identified, said the attackers had boarded
the bus and tried to identify Muslims and non-Muslims.
Ahmed Maalim, an official at the Mandera East sub-county security force,
said the attackers had ordered passengers thought to be non-Muslims out of
the bus. Three were spared after reciting Koranic verses and ordered back on
the bus.
"The women and men (remaining outside) were separated, then shot at close
range," he said. "None survived."
In response to the attack, Kenya's armed forces launched ground and air
raids and destroyed a camp believed to have been used by the attackers. An
army spokesman said the assault would continue until the attackers were
arrested.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility last year for an attack on Nairobi's
Westgate shopping mall in which at least 67 people were killed, and for
attacks in the Lamu region in June and July in which at least 65 people
died.
The group, whose leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in September, has vowed
to drive Kenyan and other African Union peacekeeping troops out of Somalia.
In televised remarks, Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto said: "I want to
assure you all that all those responsible for the loss of lives of Kenyans -
we will pursue you everywhere, be it in Kenya, be it in Somalia."
The Mandera region is awash with guns due to its proximity to Somalia, where
al Shabaab has been fighting to topple the government, and Ethiopia, whose
armed Oromo Liberation Front has made incursions into Kenya.
Insecurity plagues East Africa's biggest economy, prompting Western nations
to issue travel warnings and hitting the tourism industry, a major source of
hard currency. (Additional reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh in
Mogadishu, Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi, Noor Ali in Isiolo and Andy Bruce in
London; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
C Thomson Reuters 2014 All rights reserved
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Up to 80 people killed by suspected Ugandan rebels in Congo -group
Fri Nov 21, 2014 6:26pm GMT
(Adds quote from witness)
By Aaron Ross
KINSHASA Nov 21 (Reuters) - Suspected Ugandan ADF-NALU rebels have killed
between 50 and 80 people in attacks near the eastern Congolese town of Beni,
slitting the throats of many of their victims, local sources and witnesses
said on Friday.
In a statement, Civil Society of North Kivu, the province where Beni is
situated, said the killings had occurred on Thursday evening about 10 km (6
miles) east of Beni airport, where U.N. peacekeepers, known as MONUSCO, are
based.
"We already saw 70 bodies. The authorities are searching for other bodies,"
said a priest who saw the massacre site.
The attackers were dressed in Congolese army fatigues and pretended to be
soldiers before the killings and they slit many of their victims' throats,
said the priest, who declined to be named.
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and civil society groups
have blamed a string of recent attacks in the east of the country on ADF, a
secretive organisation formed in the 1990s to fight the Ugandan government,
though some analysts have questioned this assessment.
North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku told Reuters nine bodies had arrived at
the morgue in the nearby town of Oicha after the latest attacks, but said
the toll could rise. Paluku also blamed the Ugandan rebels for the deaths.
"They were savagely killed by the ADF ... It was far from the main road.
About 12 kilometres from Mavivi, I believe, in the bush," he said.
In Beni, U.N. spokesman Major Raphael Shonza said MONUSCO could not confirm
details of the attacks but would send troops on Saturday to the site of the
violence. (Additional reporting by Bievenu Marie Bakumanya; Editing by
Gareth Jones; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)