Al-Shabaab kills six in attack targeting Christians

Al-Shabaab militants killed six people Thursday in an attack in northern Kenya near the border of Somalia. The group said it targeted Christians.

The gunmen attacked a gated residential block of Mandera where 33 non-Muslims reside. Witnesses said the attackers set off an explosive device on the complex before they opened fire.

Mandera County Governor Ali Roba confirmed the attack and killings. Roba said security forces manning the area responded in time to rescue the remaining 27 people in the compound and drive out the attackers, who fled across the Somali border. Police discharged explosives and landmines the attackers planted in the compound before they entered, according to officials.

“Six lives are too many to lose,” Roba told Kenya’s Daily Nation. “We condemn the attack, which comes at a time when locals had started enjoying peace.”

Kenya’s government spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the government had intelligence reports of a possible al-Shabaab attack in the county, but lacked specific information to act.

Somalia-based al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. The extremist group’s Andalus radio station quoted an unnamed al-Shabaab official.

“It was a well-planned attack which targeted Christian members in Mandera,” the official said. “We have eliminated the enemy members [who] were targeted.”

Mandera County remains a regular target of the extremist group. Al-Shabaab gunmen in July killed at least six people when they fired at two buses traveling in the county. In November 2014, the extremist group hijacked a bus traveling through the county and killed 28 non-Muslims on board. Al-Shabaab has continually staged attacks in Kenya since 2011, when Kenya sent troops to Somalia to help fight al-Shabaab’s insurgency.

Kenyan security officials have deployed troops to go after the attackers and others to provide security for the residents in the region, according to Kiraithe. He said Kenya will continue to firmly tackle terrorism, and will not tolerate any sympathizers of the extremist group.

“The government takes this opportunity to send our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this heinous attack,” Kiraithe said. “An attack on one Kenyan is an attack on all Kenyans.”