Al-Shabab extremists attack vehicles killing 2 in Kenya’s north

In April, four Shabaab militants massacred 148 people at the Garissa University in Kenya’s northeast, in what was the group’s deadliest single attack to date.

The Muslims who shielded their Christian brothers from al Shabaab attackers on Monday morning on a Mandera-bound bus deserve medals, Muslim clerics in Mombasa said yesterday.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesperson for the militants, told Reuters that his fighters were able to kill “some of the Christian enemies”. But both groups of passengers refused, daring the extremists to kill them all.

Eyewitnesses say that terrorists, believed to be from al-Shabab, ordered people on a bus that was stopped to split into groups, but the Muslims refused their demands, according to the Daily Nation newspaper.

“The attackers tried to wave the bus down but then sprayed it with bullets when the driver refused to stop”, Saleh reportedly said Monday. The militants fled after the attack.

The Kenya bus explosion incident took place in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi, which has heavy presence of Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group. The Somalia-based militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it was revenge for Kenyan police raids on mosques in the coastal city of Mombasa, according to Al Jazeera. “If they can’t recite the Qur’an, they are killed”. Throngs make their way to relatives’ homes for the holidays, with buses and other public transportation packed. There were 50 passengers on board. He said that the passengers insisted that al-Shabab either “kill them together or leave them alone”.

“Initial reports indicate two people have died and three injured”, said Deputy County Commissioner Julius Otieno.

One of the victims was shot dead after trying to run away from the militants after passengers had been forced off the bus, the employee told the BBC in Nairobi.

“We have shared the information with the Cabinet Secretary and security team in Nairobi”. The militants did not respond to a request for further comment on the Muslim passengers’ behavior.

“We are all Kenyans, we are not separated by religion”, he said.