Al-Shabab claims responsibility for attack on Kenya town

At least 48 people were killed after unidentified armed men attacked Mpeketoni, a coastal town in Kenya's Lamu County, police and witnesses said Monday. The Somalia-based armed group Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Gunmen went door to door in the Kenyan costal town, demanding to know if the men inside were Muslim and if they spoke Somali. If the attackers did not like the answers, they opened fire, witnesses said.

The gunmen also fired from two minibuses and set two hotels ablaze, officials said, adding that most of the victims were shot in the head. The assault came late Sunday night as town residents were watching World Cup matches on TV. 

The attackers also broke into three banks: Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity, and Co-operative. It is not yet clear whether they stole any money. The Kenya Army spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said the gunmen entered the western town of Mpeketoni, a trading center on the main coastal road, and started "shooting people around in town," according to AFP.

Al-Shabab said in a release sent to Al Jazeera on Monday that the group targeted Mpeketoni because it was originally a Muslim area that was "invaded and occupied by Christian settlers." 

"The prospect of peace and stability in Kenya will be but a distant mirage," the statement read. "Brace yourself for the depredations of war and that which you have with your hands sown."

Like the gunmen who attacked Nairobi's Westgate Mall last year, the Mpeketoni attackers gave life-or-death religious assessment, a witness said, killing those who were not Muslim.

"They came to our house at around 8 p.m. and asked us in Swahili whether we were Muslims. My husband told them we were Christians and they shot him in the head and chest," said Anne Gathigi.

Another resident, John Waweru, said his two brothers were killed because the attackers did not like that the brothers did not speak Somali.

"My brothers who stay next door to me were killed as I watched. I was peeping from my window, and I clearly heard them speak to my brothers in Somali and it seems since my brothers did not meet their expectations, they sprayed them with bullets and moved on," said Waweru.

At the Breeze View Hotel, the gunmen pulled the men aside and ordered the women to watch as they killed them, saying it was what Kenyan troops are doing to Somali men inside Somalia, a police commander said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share such details of the attack.

Kenya's National Disaster Operation Center said military surveillance planes were launched after the attack.

Al-Shabab, which has fought a seven-year campaign to impose its interpretation of Islamic law in Somalia, is an Al-Qaeda-linked group that has vowed to carry out attacks to fight the Kenyan military presence in Somali. Along with its Somali fighters, the group also has many Kenyan adherents. Kenya sent troops into Somalia in late 2011, after Al-Shabab fighters carried out a series of raids in Kenya.

Kenya has seen a drop in tourist arrivals in recent months after a string of attacks blamed on the group or its sympathizers. Mpeketoni is about 30 miles southwest of the tourist center of Lamu, where the ancient architecture is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Lamu is Kenya’s is the oldest continuously inhabited town.

In May, explosions in Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa led Britain, the United States, France and Australia to issue warnings about travel to the East African country, and at least 400 tourists cut short their stays and left hotels along the Indian Ocean coast.

Kenya called the alerts "unfriendly” and said the warnings would increase panic and play into the hands of those behind the assaults.

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for many other attacks, including a coordinated shooting rampage on Sept. 21 in an upscale mall in Nairobi that left at least 39 people dead. It was also behind a 2010 attack in Kampala, Uganda, during which 74 people were killed while watching a World Cup match.

Al Jazeera and wire services