Kenya: Islamists kill 50, some during World Cup screening

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"The attackers were so many and were all armed with guns. They entered the video hall where we were watching a World Cup match and shot indiscriminately at us."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Reuters | Africa
By Drazen Jorgic | June 16, 2014

Worst assault by gunmen since Westgate mall attack | Al Shabaab tell tourists to quit Kenya "war zone" | About 10 of 50 killed at World Cup screening venue 

MPEKETONI, Kenya -- Somali-linked Islamists have killed at least 50 people in a Kenyan coastal town, executing men in front of their families and killing others who had gathered to watch World Cup soccer on television.

The al Shabaab group said on Monday that its commandos launched Sunday night's strike on Mpeketoni because Kenya had sent its forces to Somalia and accused Nairobi of assassinating Muslim scholars, a charge Kenyan officials have denied.

"Kenya is now officially a war zone and as such any tourists visiting the country do so at their own peril," it said, after staging the biggest assault since its gunmen attacked Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in September, leaving 67 dead.

Mpeketoni, where shells of buildings smouldered and pools of blood congealed on the streets, is not normally a stopover for foreign visitors on Kenya's popular coast, but the attack is likely to hurt further an already struggling tourist industry.

Western nations have in recent weeks tightened their warnings about travel to Kenya, which has been hit by a spate of recent gun attacks and bombings in Nairobi and around the main port of Mombasa, though none have been as serious as Sunday's.

"The attackers were so many and were all armed with guns. They entered the video hall where we were watching a World Cup match and shot indiscriminately at us," Meshack Kimani told Reuters, adding about 10 people were killed there.

"They targeted only men but I was lucky. I escaped by hiding behind the door," he said.

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