Gunmen Opened Fire At The Quarry After Separating Muslims And Non-Muslims
Nairobi : At least 36 people were killed on Tuesday in an attack on a stone quarry in Kenya’s Mandera town by Al Shabaab militants even as President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to intensify the war against terrorism, reports IANS.
According to officials, gunmen opened fire at the quarry after separating Muslims and non-Muslims, Al Jazeera reported.
The scene of the latest attack is about 30 km from the Nov 22 raid on a bus, in which 28 non-Muslims were separated from the Muslim travellers and were executed. According to a Xinhua report, Kenyan police confirmed that at least 36 quarry workers were killed in the early morning attack in northern Kenya.
Mandera county police commander Noah Mwivanda said the workers were killed at 1 am by a group of gunmen when they were sleeping at the quarry at Koromey, about 20 km from Mandera county bordering Somalia.He said initial investigations have revealed that the militants were heavily armed.
The shooting at the quarry comes after an attack on a night club in the Kenyan town of Wajir Monday night.
One person was killed and at least 12 injured after gunmen hurled grenades and sprayed bullets at the building. The Al Shabaab militants later Tuesday in a statement issued from the southern port city of Kismayo in Somalia owned the attack in Mandera county. The militants said the attack was part of a series planned and executed to serve as a response to Kenya’s occupation of Muslim lands and their ongoing atrocities against Muslims in the Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa and Somalia.
In a related development, Kenya’s police chief David Kimaiyo offered to retire Tuesday after serving for 34 years amid increased terror attacks across the East African nation.Kimaiyo told a news conference in Nairobi that his retirement was a personal decision, and added that President Uhuru Kenyatta has accepted his resignation.
