Gunmen
killed 17 people and wounded dozens in gun and grenade attacks on two
churches Sunday in the Kenyan town of Garissa near the border with
Somalia, officials said.
Wearing
balaclavas, the attackers killed two armed police — posted outside
churches following previous attacks — before bursting inside to target
worshippers as they held prayer services.
Witnesses
said bodies lay scattered on the floor inside the blood spattered
buildings — a Roman Catholic church and an Africa Inland Church.
“It is a terrible scene, you can see bodies lying in the churches,” said regional police chief Leo Nyongesa.
At least 40 people were rushed to hospital, several in a critical condition, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
The
Red Cross, which put the death toll at 17, flew the three most
critically injured victims by air ambulance to the capital Nairobi.
Three children were reported to be among the dead.
“It
is a horrible sight to see,” said Hussein Abdi, a resident of Garissa, a
garrison town populated mainly by Muslim ethnic Somalis and located
some 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the border.
Condemning
the attacks as a “horrible and very worrying act”, the Vatican deplored
that “among terrorist groups, attacks on Christians gathered on Sunday
in their place of worship has become a method, believed to be
particularly efficient, of spreading hatred and fear,” spokesman
Federico Lombardi said.
Nigeria
has suffered a string of almost weekly attacks on church services in
recent months in which dozens of faithful have been killed.
Kenya
has suffered a spate of gun, grenade and bomb attacks since sending
troops into southern Somalia last October to target Shebab rebels
fighting to overthrow the weak UN-backed government in the Horn of
Africa state.
Later,
the pro-Shebab Twitter site Al-Kataib boasted of a “successful
operation in Garissa” but did not specifically claim responsibility.
Nairobi has blamed previous assaults on the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab.
Kenyan
Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said Sunday that the nation “will not be
intimidated by such cowardly acts” and urged Kenyans to “exercise
religious tolerance.”
The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims condemned the attacks, saying that “all places of worship must be respected.”
“We want to send our condolences, and we are sad that no arrests have been made yet,” said chairman Abdulghafur El-Busaidy.
Police
said up to seven men had carried out the attacks which came two days
after a gunmen killed a Kenyan driver and abducted four foreign aid
workers from the Dadaab refugee camp, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) to
the northeast.
Last
week a grenade blast in a bar in Kenya’s main port of Mombasa killed
three people, a day after the US embassy warned of the threat of attack.
Search
efforts continued for the abducted aid workers, two men and two women
who work with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and who come from
Canada, Norway, Pakistan and the Philippines, according to police.
Kenya’s
army scoured border areas for a third straight day amid fears that the
gunmen and their hostages had crossed into Somalia, around 100
kilometres from Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp.
Attacks
and cross-border raids in the region blamed on the Shebab, including
the kidnapping in October of two Spaniards working for Medecins sans
Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), were key to Kenya’s decision to
invade Somalia.
The
Shebab still control large parts of southern Somalia, despite African
Union troops, government forces and Ethiopian soldiers wresting control
of several key bases from the insurgents.
Since
the 1991 ouster of then president Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia has been
governed by ruthless warlords, rival militia groups, pirate gangs and
Islamist fighters, each controlling their own limited fiefdoms.
Hundreds
of thousands of Somalis have fled to Kenya as well as other
neighbouring nations since the collapse of a formal government two
decades ago, while crippling drought and famine racked the lawless
nation last year.
