Al-Shabab Islamists murder 28 non-Muslims on bus in Kenya

Al Shabaab thought to be behind massacre of passengers on bus in northern Kenya
At least 28 feared dead in attack near Somali border

Al-Shabaab militants from Somalia hijacked a bus in Kenya's north and killed 28 non-Muslims on board after they had been singled out from the rest of the passengers, police officials said Saturday.
Two police officers said that the bus traveling to the capital Nairobi with 60 passengers was hijacked 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the town Mandera near Kenya's border with Somalia.
Some of the dead were public servants who were heading to the capital Nairobi for the Christmas vacation, the officers said.
"I can confirm... that 28 innocent travellers were brutally executed by the Shabaab," regional police chief Noah Mwavinda told AFP, 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 northeasternmost corner.
Some 60 passengers on board were ordered off the vehicle, with the gunmen separating the travellers 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 has been hit by a series of gun and bomb attacks blamed on Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants since it sent troops into Somalia in October 2011. Authorities say there have been at least 135 attacks since then, including the Westgate Mall attack in which 67 people were killed. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the Westgate Mall attack in September 2013. The terror group also said it was responsible for other attacks on Kenya's coast earlier this year which left at least 90 people dead.
Saturday's 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, looking for arms and Shebab sympathisers.
Police seized weapons and found black Islamist flags like those flown by the Shebab in the raids.
Four people were stabbed to death in apparent revenge attacks on Monday, with gangs taking to the streets beating some and knifing others after the raids that raised tensions in a city hit by a string of bombings and shootings.
Kenyan troops are part of the African Union Mission in Somalia which is bolstering Somalia's weak U.N.-backed government against the al-Shabab insurgency. Al-Shabab has continued to carry out attacks on Somalia's capital despite being pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union forces supporting the government in August 2011. The Somali government troops backed by AU forces are making progress in capturing the remaining al-Shabab strongholds. Recently, they captured the port town of Barawe.
Al-Shabab was also dealt a heavy blow following the death of their leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in early September in a U.S. airstrike. Godane has been replaced by Ahmed Omar, also known as Abu Ubeid.
However, in a recent report, UN investigators warned that the air and drone strikes on the militia have done little to damage it in the long term and that the insurgents continue to pose a serious regional threat.
Indeed, pressure on the fighters has forced them to "become more operationally audacious by placing greater emphasis on exporting its violence beyond the borders of Somalia" and across the Horn of Africa, said an October report by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
Tensions have escalated in Mandera County, where Saturday's bus attack took place, near the border with Ethiopia and Somalia, in the past year as clashes between clans have displaced hundreds of people.
The region is awash with guns due to its proximity to Somalia, where al Shabaab has been fighting to topple the government, and Ethiopia, from where the armed Oromo Liberation Front has made incursions into Kenya.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...somalia/11247549/al-shabaab-bus-massacre.html