Militants kill 49 in Kenya, warn tourists

Mpeketoni: At least 49 people have been killed after militants from Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab stormed into a Kenyan coastal town, attacking a police station, hotels and homes and singling out non-Muslims for execution, officials and witnesses said on Monday. The assault on Mpeketoni, near the coastal island and popular tourist resort of Lamu, was the worst attack on Kenyan soil since last September’s siege of the Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi.

A statement from the Shebab said the latest attack was further retaliation for Kenya’s military presence in Somalia as well as the “Kenyan government’s brutal oppression of Muslims through coercion, intimidation and extrajudicial killings of Muslim scholars.” It also declared Kenya a “war zone” and warned tourists and foreigners to stay out of the country. Witnesses said a group of around 50 terrorists attacked a police station before moving on to kill civilians.