Somali Islamists kill at least one in attack in north Kenya

Monday, March 16, 2015

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ISIOLO, Kenya - Somali Islamist militants killed at least one man and wounded three others in the northern Kenyan town of Mandera on Sunday, the second deadly attack in the area in three days, an official and the Islamist group said.

The Mandera region, which lies on the border with Somalia, has long been targeted by al Shabaab, which has said it wants to punish Kenya for sending troops into Somalia where they are fighting alongside other African peacekeepers.

Mandera County Commissioner Alex Nkoyo said four mechanics were attacked by gunmen while they were driving home. One was killed and the other three were being treated in hospital, the commissioner said.

Al Shabaab said it carried out the killings. "Tonight, we carried out an operation inside Mandera town of Kenya. We killed one person and injured three others," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's military operation spokesman, told Reuters.

On Friday, four people were killed when the militants attacked a convoy in the Mandera area. Officials said it was carrying regional governor Ali Roba, who was unharmed. Al Shabaab described the target as a military convoy.

Late last year, al Shabaab killed more than 60 people in two attacks - one on quarry workers and another on a passenger bus - in the same region in the space of little more than a week.

(Reporting by Noor Ali in Isiolo and Feisal Omar in Mogadishu; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

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