Somalia's Shebab Claim Latest Kenya Massacre, Vow More Attacks
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Somalia's Shebab rebels on Tuesday said they carried out the massacre of 36 quarry workers in northeast Kenya, and vowed to be "uncompromising, relentless and ruthless" in fighting Kenya.
"In another successful operation carried out by the Mujahideen, nearly 40 Kenyan crusaders met their demise after a unit from the Saleh Nabhan brigade raided them in the midnight hours of Monday at Koromei, on the outskirts of Mandera," Shebab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement to Agence France Presse.
"This latest attack was part of a series of attacks planned and executed by the Mujahideen as a response to Kenya's occupation of Muslim lands and their ongoing atrocities, such as the recent airstrikes on Muslims in Somalia which caused the death of innocent Muslims and the destruction of their properties and livestock, as well as the continued suffering of Muslims in Mombasa," the statement said.
"As Kenya persists in its occupation of Muslim lands, kills innocent Muslims, transgresses upon their sanctities and throws them into prisons, we will persist to defend our land and our people from their aggression.
"We are uncompromising in our beliefs, relentless in our pursuit, ruthless against the disbelievers and we will do whatever necessary to defend our Muslim brethren suffering from Kenya's aggression."
Around 20 fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Shebab rebels attacked a quarry near the northeastern town of Mandera in the early hours of Tuesday morning. After spraying tents where the quarry workers slept with gunfire, the militants then weeded out non-Muslims and shot them in the head.
Some of the victims were also beheaded, police sources and reports said.
The attack comes just over a week after the Shebab claimed responsibility for the execution of 28 people who were grabbed from a bus travelling from Mandera, a border town located between Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
The special Shebab brigade which has carried out the attacks is named after slain Shebab commander and Kenyan citizen Saleh Ali Nabhan, killed in 2009 by U.S. special forces for his role as al-Qaida's chief in east Africa.
