NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The Somali militant group al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for killing 28 non-Muslims who were on a bus that was hijacked while traveling to Nairobi.
Saturday's pre-dawn attack happened close to the Somali border, about 20 miles outside of the town of Mandera.
According to witness accounts, the bus was stopped and forced off the road before it was boarded by heavily armed men. One person on the bus, Ahmed Mahat, said the passengers were forced to get out of the vehicle and divided into groups of Somali and non-Somali.
"The non-Somalis were ordered to read some verses of the holy Koran, and those who failed to read were ordered to lie down. One by one, they were shot in the head at point blank range," Mahat said.
A spokesman for al-Shabaab said the bus attack was in retaliation for raids that Kenyan security forces had carried out on mosques in Mombasa. Police said explosives were found during the raids in which more than 150 people were arrested.
In the statement, Sheikh Ah Mohamud Rage said: "By the grace of Allah, the Mujahideen successfully carried out an operation near Mandera early this morning, which resulted in the perishing of 28 crusaders, as a revenge for the crimes committed by the Kenyan crusaders against our Muslim brethren in Mombasa."
The attackers fled toward the border between Kenya and Somalia and were being hunted by a security team, police said.
Since it sent troops to Somalia three years ago to help fight al-Shabaab, Kenya has been the target of several attacks by the militant group -- especially in the remote area of Mandera.
