Takfiri militants kill 14 in Kenya guesthouse bombing

At least 14 people have been killed and 147 others injured in a bomb attack by Somalia’s Takfiri militants on the town of Mandera in northeast Kenya.

Kenyan media quoted police as saying that suspected militants from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group were behind the attack that targeted a guesthouse on Tuesday.

“We have found 14 bodies so far after we managed to access the building,” one senior police officer said, adding they were combing the area with the help of anti-terrorism police and sniffer dogs.

A police source said the 3:30 am (0030 GMT) attack on the Bishar Guesthouse left 11 men and one woman dead.

The attack is the second of its kind in the northeastern town of Mandera in less than a month. On October 6, six people lost their lives in an attack by al-Shabab on a residential compound there.

The Shabab has a long record of launching attacks in Kenya as revenge for the country’s contribution to the African Union’s mission which seeks to bolster the Somali government.

Kenya sent over 3,000 soldiers to Somalia in late 2011 after al-Shabab carried out a series of raids inside Kenya.

The Takfiri group has been pushed out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other major cities in the country, but keeps carrying out attacks against civilians and troops.

Kenya’s counties of Mandera and Garissa on the border have been hit by an upsurge of attacks by al-Shabab militants. In April, the group carried out an attack against the Garissa University College campus, killing nearly 150 people.

Militants kill intelligence officer in Mogadishu

In another development late on Monday, Shabab militants shot dead a top intelligence officer in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Police officer Ismail Hussein said that Colonel Abdiasis Araye was gunned down in Mogadishu’s Waberi district.

“We reached the scene but the militants had already escaped,” Hussein added.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, Shabab’s spokesman for military operations, also confirmed that the Takfiri group had killed the officer.

The militants launch regular attacks in Mogadishu, targeting troops and members of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) that supports the Somali army.

Bomb blast hits AU base in Somalia’s Beledweyne

Additionally, a Shabab element rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into an African Union (AU) military base in the Somali city of Beledweyne on Tuesday.

The attack targeted “the Djiboutian military base in western Beledweyne,” said local security official Abdullah Ibrahim, noting that the number of casualties was not yet known.

Witness Ismail Mahad reported seeing “clouds of smoke caused by the heavy blast” followed by “exchange of gunfire at the Djiboutian camp.”

The Shabab took responsibility for the bombing and claimed “the death and injury of many soldiers” in Tuesday’s incident.