An extremist attack targeting non-Muslims along Kenya’s northeast border with Somalia on Tuesday has killed 12 people, according to a Kenyan official.

Militants belonging to the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab attacked the Bisharo Guest House, a lodging in Mandera County that hosts out-of-towners, with grenades and IEDs, Mandera County commander Job Boronjo said.

“It is true there was an attack. Rescue efforts are ongoing,” he said.

Al-Shabab immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on its telegram messaging channel. The group says the attack targeted “Christian workers.”

The attack Tuesday marks the latest in several cross-border attacks attributed to al-Shabab since Kenya intervened in Somalia in 2011.

Similar attacks

Earlier this month, six people were killed during a similar attack on visitors in Mandera when suspected al-Shabab militants attacked a residential housing area.  In November 2014, militants killed 28 non-Muslims after hijacking a bus in Madera County.

In Somalia, a suspected al-Shabab suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb at an African Union peacekeeping base, killing at least three people.  Five others were injured.

Truck full of explosives

The attack happened Tuesday in Beledweyne, 300 kilometers north of the capital. 

“A suicide bomber speeding a truck full of explosives drove into the front gate of Djibouti peacekeepers’ base in Hawlwadag district in the town,” Yuusuf Ahmed Hagar, the governor of the region told VOA’s Somali Service.

A senior security official told VOA on condition of anonymity that three Djiboutian peacekeepers were killed and at least five others injured.

A reporter for VOA who went to the base said he saw several houses around the base destroyed by the explosion.

Al-Shabab has been fighting since 2006 to overthrow the Somali government and establish a state based on the group’s strict version of Islamic law.
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