14 workers killed by Shebab militants in Kenya

Nairobi

Shebab militants killed at least 14 workers in northern Kenya today, officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks in the east African nation by the Somali-led Islamists. 

The attack occurred just outside the town of Mandera in Kenya's far northeastern region, which borders Ethiopia and war-torn Somalia, and comes a little more than two weeks before US President Barack Obama is due to make his first presidential visit to Kenya, where his father was born. 

"People were sleeping when the attack happened. They just came and hurled explosives into the houses," said Mandera County Commissioner Alex Ole Nkoyo, confirming 14 people had been killed in the attack. 

"These were Al-Shebab from the nature of the attack. They used explosives and guns," he said.

A pro-Shebab website, Somalimemo, said the Al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels had confirmed they carried out the attack against "Christian Kenyans".

A regional commissioner, Mohamud Saleh, said the attackers were believed to be Shebab members based in Kenya's northeast, which has seen a string of attacks in recent months.

"We believe the assailants are members of al-Shebab terror group who are operating from sleeper cells in Mandera town," Saleh told reporters in Garissa, where in April the Shebab massacred 148 people at the town's university, most of them students.