Nairobi: Gunmen killed 16 people and wounded dozens when they opened fire and hurled grenades into two churches in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa on Sunday, officials said, in the latest in a string of attacks.
In apparently coordinated attacks, they burst into churches targeting worshippers as they held Sunday prayer services in Garissa, some 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the border with war-torn Somalia. The attackers later escaped. ‘
‘At the AIC (Africa Inland Church) 10 people were shot dead within the church compound, and three were injured in a Catholic Church,’’ said deputy regional police chief Philip Ndolo.
‘‘We condemn this act in the strongest of terms’’ Kenyan Red Cross chief Abbas Gullet said others died on the way to hospital, taking the number killed to 16.
At least 40 others were wounded, 10 of them critically, he added. Police said up to seven men were involved in the attacks, which come two days after gunmen killed a Kenyan driver and abducted four foreign aid workers from the Dadaab refugee camp, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Garissa.
‘‘We have not arrested any suspects, but we have reports that five suspects were involved in the AIC attack in a combination of grenade and shooting, while two suspects were involved in the Catholic church attack,’’ said Ndolo.
Kenya has suffered a spate of grenade attacks, shootings and bomb blasts since sending troops into southern Somalia in October to crush Shebab bases, prompting warnings of revenge attacks by the Islamist fighters.
Last week a grenade blast in a bar in Kenya’s main port of Mombasa killed three people, a day after the US embassy warned of the threat of attack. (AFP)