Somalia's Al-Shabab claims Kenya bus attack

Following a deadly attack in northern Kenya on Saturday, a spokesperson for Al-Shabab confirmed that its members were behind the incident.

The militants killed 28 people on board a bus near the Kenya town of Mandera "as revenge for the crimes committed by the Kenyan crusaders against our Muslim brethren in Mombasa," Al-Shabab spokesperson Sheikh Ali Mohammed Rage said in a statement.

The gunmen had forced the bus off of the road and proceeded to execute 19 men and 9 women who were not Muslim, according to Kenyan police. Local security officials were reportedly slow to respond due to a lack of weaponry, which forced them to wait for military reinforcement.

According to the Al-Shabab spokesperson, Saturday's assault was in retaliation for a raid carried out earlier this week by Kenyan security forces on four mosques near the port city of Mombasa. Kenyan authorities claimed that the houses of worship were being used to attract recruits for the Islamist group.

The spokesperson added that the group was demanding an end to Kenya's military operations against Al-Shabab both in Kenya and in Somalia, where Nairobi has sent troops to bolster Somalia's anti-insurgency operations.

Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo later said that the attackers were believed to have fled to Somalia.

The Islamist extremist group has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya since the Kenyan government first deployed soldiers to Somalia in 2011, most notably the September 2013 attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, which claimed the lives of 67 people.

kms/mg (AP, Reuters, dpa)