Al-Shabab Blamed For Attack In Northeast Kenya

At least six people killed in attack on residential building in border region often targeted by Somali armed group.

At least six people have been killed in an attack on a residential building in northeast Kenya by suspected fighters from the Somalia-based group al-Shabaab, authorities have said. 

Security official Mohamud Ali Saleh said on Thursday that the assailants used explosives to infiltrate the gate building in Mandera county, less than a kilometre away from the Somali border town of Beled Hawo.

"We highly suspect the attackers are members of the Shabaab insurgent group, who have sneaked across the porous border," he said.

"These criminal gangs are desperate to hurt innocent Kenyans since  they were defeated badly and routed out of all their hideouts in the neighbouring country."

There was no immediate comment from al-Shabab.

The Mandera region on the Somali border has often been targeted by al-Shabab, which says it will continue a campaign of violence in Kenya until the government there withdraws its troops from Somalia where they are part of an African Union force.

Report said that after hurling an explosive device to gain access to complex, the attackers opened fired indiscriminately. 

They were then forced out of the building by police, she said, adding that when officers tried to get inside the complex to retrieve bodies an explosion went off.

"So now they are waiting for bomb experts to see if there were more explosive device before the place is declared safe to go in," she said.