World

Hotel in Kenya bombed by al Shabaab, 12 people killed

BY Desiree Huitt

Al Shabaab detonated a bomb at a hotel in Mandera, a city in northern Kenya, killing 12 people and injuring several others. The bomb was detonated at 3 am while the guests were asleep and the majority of them died as a result of a portion of the building collapsing. Those that were not killed […]

Al Shabaab detonated a bomb at a hotel in Mandera, a city in northern Kenya, killing 12 people and injuring several others. The bomb was detonated at 3 am while the guests were asleep and the majority of them died as a result of a portion of the building collapsing. Those that were not killed by the collapse were shot by the terrorists. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility and stated that they did not lose any of their fighters in the attack.

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Eight actors from the “Pearls Quality Edutainment” were staying at the hotel at the time of the attack. The group of actors had been performing plays at secondary schools over the past few weeks.

Two members of the little known theatre travelling group, Pearls Quality Edutainment, were killed.

“We have been receiving threats and we have experienced attacks wherever we stayed before they finally got us,” said Mr Otieno.

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He said the gunmen spoke in Somali and fired at them repeatedly and some of them hid in the toilets as the gunmen fired at them and set off explosions.- BBC

According to the New York Times, this area has been hit hard by al Shabaab in the past.

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This month, Islamist militants killed six people there. Less than two years ago, Islamist militants slaughtered dozens of miners in the same area, separating the Christians from the Muslims and shooting the Christians in the head.

“The population of Mandera needs to wake up from slumber and realize attacks are aimed at economic isolation,” the governor of Mandera, Ali Roba, said, according to Citizen TV in Kenya.

Kenya has been locked in a war against the Shabab for five years, part of a wider effort to dislodge the militant group from Somalia. The United States has also jumped in, with American Special Forces quietly expanding a covert war inside Somalia against the Shabab, with mixed results.- New York Times

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Image courtesy of AP

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