Islamist terror group Al Shabab attacked a quarry in northern Kenya on Tuesday, massacring dozens of workers, just 10 days after a bus attack when gunmen shot dead 28 passengers who couldn't recite a Koranic verse.
Police chief, David Kimaiyo, said the victims were ambushed at a quarry in Koromei, about 10 miles from the town of Mandera, local media reported.
In recent weeks, violent Islamist terror groups on opposite sides of the continent – Kenya and Nigeria – have carried out attacks killing hundreds, with security forces in both countries accused of lapses in their failure to contain the threats.
The workers were sleeping in tents at the quarry in the early hours of Tuesday morning when the attack began. Kenya's Red Cross and local officials reported that 36 quarry workers were killed.
Thirty-two of the dead were shot in the head by the assailants – like the bus attack victims - but four were beheaded, Reuters reported, citing a witness.
Al Qaeda-linked Somali terror group, Al Shabab, has claimed responsibility for the attack and carried out last month's bus massacre. Both Kenyan attacks were near the northern town of Mandera, near the Somali border, and both saw gunmen separate non-Muslims from the group, before killing them.
Kenya has seen a series of terror attacks since its 2011 invasion of Somali to help fight Al Shabab as part of a UN-backed African force, AMISOM.
Shabab, which is fighting the Somali government, has been driven from almost all major towns, losing significant territory in recent years, but is still able to mount devastating terror attacks in Somalia and Kenya.
Last year the group attacked the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67.
It has recently focused on attacks in coastal and northern territory, undermining one of Kenya's most important industries, tourism. The nation's coastal beach resorts are deserted after the fatal shootings of two foreign tourists in recent months.
Just as Nigeria - the continent's richest country - has lost a swathe of north-eastern Nigeria to its homegrown terror group, Boko Haram, Kenya has seen increasing attacks in remote northern Kenya that undermine its control of the region. The country's porous border with Somalia allows Al Shabab attackers to melt back across the Somali border.
Kenya last week claimed to have bombed an Al Shabab base and killed some hundred fighters in the wake of the bus attack.
Photos of the quarry victims posted online Tuesday bore a chilling resemblance to the scene of the bus shooting, with victims on the ground in a long line, with shots to the head.
Shabab says its attacks in Kenya are in revenge for Kenya's military actions in Somalia.
The terror attacks in northern Nigeria are part of Boko Haram's fight to establish a strict Islamic state in the 170-million strong nation, split between a predominantly Muslim north and mainly Christian south.
Terrorists believed to be from Boko Haram have recently slain dozens of fishermen in the north east of the country; attacked villages and towns; twice launched suicide bombings in a Maiduguri market, just days apart; and launched multiple bombings and shootings at the central mosque in the northern city of Kano, killing at least 100 people.
While Shabab and Boko Haram are waging separate local jihad campaigns, analysts suggest the groups have shared campaign tactics in the past. Boko Haram fighters are also believed to have been trained by Al Qaeda linked terror groups in various parts of the continent.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times12:06 a.m.: Updates throughout with staff reporting.
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