3 Kenya hotels set ablaze as gunmen attack Lamu County

Unidentified gunmen have attacked a coastal town in Kenya's Lamu county and set fire to at least three hotels and a petrol station, authorities have said.

Police said the assailants also attacked a police station on Sunday after they arrived at Mpeketoni on mainland Lamu in a van.

"Attackers hijacked a van from Witu town which they used for the attacks. They raided Mpeketoni police station first and opened fire," Hamaton Mwaliko, Mpeketoni area administration police chief, told the Reuters news agency.

"Some hotels in the town are on fire. We don't know how many casualties are there for now. We understand the attackers have already fled but our officers are pursuing them."

Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre said on Twitter that the attack has been linked to the Somalia-based group al-Shabab, which has been blamed for previous violence in Kenya.

The country's Interior Ministry had earlier reported that the attackers had arrived in two public minibuses and started shooting at residents.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/06/kenya-attack-2014615212656162806.html

At least 11 people have been killed in a new attack on Kenya’s coastal region, officials said Tuesday, one week after some 60 people died in twin massacres nearby.

Some were hacked to death with knives, others shot and executed at close quarters, mirroring tactics used in earlier attacks claimed by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab.

The attack took place overnight on a small village near the town of Witu, on the mainland some 50 kilometres west of the tourist island of Lamu.

Lamu County Commissioner Stephen Ikua called it an “unfortunate attack”, the third in the area this month.

Five bodies were initially found, Ikua said, but a police source later said that six more bodies were found, taking the toll to 11.

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2014/06/gunmen-kill-11-in-fresh-attack-on-lamu-mainland/