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Jihadists kill eight in Kenya bus attack
NAIROBI, Dec 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Several police officers were among at
least eight people killed in an attack on a bus in northeast Kenya claimed
Saturday by the Somali Islamist Al-Shebaab group.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had been briefed on the “brutal” murders
of eight people, including police, during the attack in Wajir county, a
presidential spokesperson said Saturday.
However a senior police source told AFP that the toll was 10 dead, seven
of them police.
“We lost seven police officers in the bus attack,” the source said,
asking not to be named.
“The total number of the people killed are 10. One was identified as a
local doctor.”
A police statement released Friday evening gave no casualty toll, just
noting that the bus, which linked the towns of Wajir and Mandera, came under
attack about 17:30 local time (1430 GMT).
“Security forces are pursuing the killers,” the state house spokesperson
said, adding, “the government will not relent in its ruthless crackdown on
criminal elements including suspected terrorists in its solemn duty to
safeguard the lives and property of Kenyans”.
The Shebaab released a statement taking responsibility for killing “10
crusaders among them secret security agents and government employees”.
The area where the attack took place borders Somalia, which is regularly
the scene of Shebaab raids.
On June 15, at least eight police officers were killed in similar
circumstances in Wajir county.
Home-made weapons and bombs have been used to kill dozens of police and
soldiers in the northern and eastern border regions, where such attacks are
relatively common.
Al-Qaeda affiliate Shebaab has been fighting for more than a decade to
overthrow successive internationally-backed Somali governments and has
previously resorted to direct attacks on road vehicles.
Kenya sent troops into southern Somalia in 2011, joining the regional
peacekeeping force AMISOM that drove the Shebaab from Mogadishu.
The government has justified the incursion to protect Kenyans from
Shebaab which, among other attacks, killed 21 people in Nairobi in January.
AMISOM includes troops from a number of African nations including Kenya,
making security forces from the country a target for the jihadists.
BSS/AFP/RY/1610 hrs