NAIROBI
At least 36 people were killed in an attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants on a quarry in Kenya's northeastern Mandera County in the early hours of Tuesday, the authorities said.
"At about 2 am heavily armed bandits raided a workers’ camp at a quarry at Koromei area [on] the outskirts of Mandera town and killed 36 Kenyans," a terse statement by the presidency said.
"Survivors of the attack indicate the bandits numbered some 20 people," the statement added, without blaming Al-Shabaab militant group who had already claimed responsibility for the attack.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka told The Anadolu Agency on phone earlier in the day that the attackers had "crossed the border and retreated into Somalia" following the attack.
The Mandera attack comes ten days after suspected Al-Shabaab militants killed 28 people in the same county in an attack on a bus traveling to the capital Nairobi.
The attack was claimed by Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-linked group opposed to the deployment of Kenyan troops in Somalia.
In recent years, Al-Shabaab has carried out attacks in Nairobi and in Kenya's northeastern region.
In September 2013, at least 67 people were killed in a four-day-long hostage-taking saga in an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall that was eventually claimed by Al-Shabaab.
www.aa.com.tr/en
