MOSCOW, November 22 (Sputnik) — Suspected militants of al-Shabaab terrorist group hijacked a bus in Mandera county near Kenya's border with Somalia, and killed 28 people, government official and police said Saturday.
"We are told the 100 armed men stopped the bus just after it left Arabia area and all the passengers were asked to come down and divided into two groups of Somalis and non-Somalis," said Elvis Korir, Mandera East Deputy County Commissioner, as quoted by Xinhua agency.
"We are also told more than 28 have been killed and many others injured, but we are yet to know the exact circumstances, but we are planning to dispatch a team of security personnel to the scene," he added.
The bus was travelling from Mandera, a town near Kenya’s border with Somalia, to the country’s capital Nairobi. There were 60 passengers on board. The militants are said to have separated non-Muslims from the rest of the passengers and shot them dead, the BBC reported.
According to some reports, anyone who failed to cite verses of Koran was executed, the BBC said.
The militants are suspected to be part of the Somali militant group al-Shabaab from neighboring Somalia, Noah Mvivanda, Mandera County police commander said, cited by Xinhua.
Al-Shabaab, a clan-based militant group linked with the international terrorist organization al-Qaeda, took over most of southern Somalia in 2006 and later continued its insurgency in southern and central areas of the country.
The Kenyan government has been fighting Al-Shabab militants since it sent its troops into the war-torn Somalia back in October 2011. As part of the African Union Mission, the Kenyan troops have backed a UN-backed Somali government against the militants, AP said. Kenyan authorities report that Al-Shabab militants are responsible for having committed at least 135 attacks since 2011, including the Westgate Mall attack that resulted in the death of 67 people last year, AP said.
