A Kenyan military aircraft carrying some of the bodies of those killed in the Mandera bus attack, arrives at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014.NAIROBI, Kenya – At least 36 quarry workers were killed early Tuesday in northern Kenya by suspected Islamic extremists from Somalia, said Kenyan police.
The killings happened in Mandera County near the border with Somalia and the attackers escaped, said Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo.
The workers were ambushed at the quarry as they slept, said other police sources, who insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. The gunmen singled out non-Muslims and killed them, said the police. Some were shot dead and others were decapitated, the police officials said.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killings but the attack bears the hallmarks of Somalia’s Islamic militant rebels, al-Shabab. Al-Shabab attacked a bus in Mandera County last week in which 28 non-Muslims were separated from other passengers and shot dead.
The quarry attack came hours after a hotel in Wajir, also in northern Kenya, was hit by a grenade and gunfire attack which killed one person and wounded 13, said police.