Somalia: Al Shabaab claims credit for Kenya quarry attack

MANDERA, Kenya Dec 2, 2014 (Garowe Online)-Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group has claimed credit for attack on quarry site near Mandera which straddles the border between Kenya and Somalia, Garowe Online reports.

Al Shabaab spokesperson Ali Mohamud Rage (Ali Dhere) said in a statement released online on Tuesday that militants from Al Shabaab’s Saleh Nabhan brigade carried out an operation in Koromei, some 15 km from Mandera town.

“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,” read Al Shabaab press statement.

Al Shabaab unveiled that the latest massacre at Mandera county quarry site was a response to what it described the constant suffering of Kenyan Muslims in Mombasa and the recent airstrike on Al Shabaab hideouts in southern Somalia: “As Kenya persists in its occupation of Muslim lands, kills innocent Muslims, transgresses upon their sanctities and throws them into prisons, we, Harakat Al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, will persist to defend our land and our people from their aggression”.

Mandera County Governor Ali Roba told Reuters that 36 people have so far been confirmed dead.

The attackers reportedly quizzed quarry workers on Islamic creed and verses from the holy Qur’an, shooting non-Muslims in the head and chest at a close range.

Neighboring Kenya has been suffering from wave of deadly attacks by Al Shabaab since 2011 when it sent troops into Somalia.

GAROWE ONLINE