Passenger says Muslims protect Christians in Islamist attack on Kenyan bus

NAIROBI (Xinhua) – At least two people were killed and four others injured when a commuter bus which was travelling from Nairobi to Mandera was attacked by suspected Al-Shabaab militants early Monday.

They told the almost 100 passengers to step out of the bus and ordered Muslims to separate from the one dozen Christians traveling with them, eyewitnesses said.

They gave the Christian women their hijabs and helped others hide behind bags in the bus, passenger Abdiqafar Teno told CNN.

Regarding the Kenya bus explosion scene, Mohammed Dahir, a journalist who witnessed the incident, told Al Jazeera: “The bus is shredded into pieces”.

Also a year ago the group targeted a bus full of teachers in Mandera County, executing 28 non-Muslims at point-plank range.

However, Al-Shabaab’s plan to instill terror and divisions among Kenyans failed when dozens of fearless Muslims stood up for the Christians onboard risking their own lives. Saleh says the rebels then shot at a truck following the bus and killed one passenger. The death toll could have been higher, Gov. Ali Roba said, but the 62 people on the bus refused to be separated between Muslim and non-Muslims.

In that attack, the militants reportedly singled out Christians and shot them, while freeing many Muslims. Last week al-Shabab militants carried out three attacks on security forces there.

Saleh said the attackers first sprayed bullets at the Makkah Bus in an effort to stop it in vain, killing one person on board.

A relative (C) is assisted by Kenya Red Cross staff as she reacts at the Chiromo Mortuary, where bodies of students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen are preserved, in Nairobi April 6, 2015.

But Muslims on the bus were not having it and shielded the Christians from the militants.

Kenya has experienced a wave of retaliatory attacks by Al Shabab, which is linked to Al Qaeda, since it sent troops to Somalia to fight the extremists in 2011.

Kenya’s northeastern border with Somalia is widely considered a security weak spot, given the challenge of policing such a long frontier, poor coordination between security services, and a culture of corruption that allows anyone prepared to pay a bribe to pass unchallenged.