Kenya: 17 killed in attack on two churches in a town near Somalia

Seventeen people were killed Sunday in an attack on two churches in a town in eastern Kenya, the Somali border region, in the deadliest attack since the intervention of the Kenyan army late 2011 in southern Somalia against the Islamist Shehab. Armed men, wearing balaclavas, opened fire and threw grenades at two churches in Garissa, when the faithful gathered for Sunday mass. These coordinated attacks have not been claimed, but are undoubtedly new retaliatory invasion Kenyan pending against the Shebab. Earlier this afternoon, a twitter account usually used by the Shebab welcomed the "successful operation in Garissa", without necessarily claiming responsibility clearly. "Ten people were killed within the walls of the church AIC (Africa Inland Church), and three were injured in the Catholic church, told AFP the number two regional police, Philip Ndolo. The head of the Kenyan Red Cross, Abbas Gullet, said that other people had died during transfer to hospital, raising the toll to 17 deaths total, including three children. At least 40 people were injured and hospitalized, ten of which are in serious condition, according to the same charge. The attackers were seven in number and were first killed two policemen on guard outside each building, police said. "We have not arrested any suspects, but we have information on the presence of five attackers at the AIC, and two in the Catholic church," said Ndolo. The bloodied bodies of victims lay on the ground, while the emergency services rushed to evacuate the wounded, witnesses said. "It's a terrible scene, we see dead bodies in blood on the floor (...)", said the police chief of the North Eastern Province, Leo Nyongesa. "The nation will not let itself be intimidated by such cowardly acts," he assured in a statement the Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, urging Kenyans to "religious tolerance". The Vatican has denounced a Sunday "is horrible and very disturbing" an "unspeakable cowardice". The Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims condemned the attacks, noting that "all places of worship should be respected." In North Eastern Province of Kenya, Garissa is located about 140 km from the border with Somalia. The city is also located 70 km from the huge Dadaab refugee camp, home to nearly 465,000 Somali refugees and humanitarian where four foreigners working for the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) have been kidnapped Friday and a Kenyan driver killed. The army has started since a vast search operation throughout the region to find the kidnapped, but without success so far. Several Kenyan cities including the capital Nairobi and the major coastal city of Mombasa, have been targeted in recent months by attacks - mainly with grenades - since the Kenyan army came in October 2011 in southern Somalia for dislodge the Somali Islamist Shebab and that they have threatened to retaliate against Kenya this "aggression". The security forces patrolling the Kenyan side in the border areas are also regularly targeted explosive devices and targeted attacks. Kenyan authorities generally attribute these attacks to Shebab, but they have never claimed. Garissa, which has a large community of ethnic Somali Kenyans, has experienced several such incidents since the invasion of Kenyan troops in Somalia. On 1 January, five people were killed in a grenade attack against a bar. On 24 November, two grenade attacks had killed three people and November 5, a grenade thrown into a church killed two people. Elsewhere in the country, a grenade attack against a bar of Mombasa killed three people on June 25, less than 48 hours after a warning from the Embassy of the United States, alerting its citizens "of an imminent threat terrorist attack in Mombasa. " In May, an earlier grenade attack in a bar-restaurant frequented - including tourists - Mombasa, Kenya's second city and capital of the popular tourist coastal province, had already killed one person.