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Kenyan coastal region of Lamu hit by deadly attacks | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
At least 29 people have been killed in two deadly shooting attacks in Kenya's coastal districts, the interior ministry has said. | |
Witnesses said heavily armed men raided a trading centre in the village of Hindi, in Lamu county, and a police station in Gamba, Tana River county, overnight on Saturday. | |
The Somali militant Islamist group al-Shabab said it was behind the killings. | |
It has previously mounted a number of attacks in the region. | |
Witnesses said about a dozen armed men had appeared in Hindi late on Saturday evening and opened fire. | |
"They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately," area chief Abdallah Shahasi told Reuters. | "They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately," area chief Abdallah Shahasi told Reuters. |
County commissioner Miiri Njenga told the agency some government offices and properties had been burned down. | County commissioner Miiri Njenga told the agency some government offices and properties had been burned down. |
All those killed were adult men apart from one teenage boy shot as he tried to flee, the AFP news agency said. | |
One woman in the town said the attackers had burned down her home but said they did not want to kill women. | |
"They said they were attacking because Muslims' lands were being taken," she told AFP. | |
Suspect freed | |
The Red Cross said another nine people - eight civilians and one police officer - were killed in Gamba, and one person was also missing. The ministry said 20 had died there. | |
Gunmen broke into the town's police station, reportedly freeing at least one suspect who had been detained over a deadly al-Shabab attack two weeks ago. | |
One police source told Reuters it was not yet clear how many detainees had been released. | |
Attacks in the Lamu area early last month killed at least 60 people, as gunmen descended on hotels and a police station near Mpeketoni, and attacked locals as they were watching a World Cup match. | |
Timeline of Somali raids in Kenya | |
Al-Shabab has said it carried out the attacks in retaliation for Kenya's military actions against its operations in Somalia. | |
But Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has blamed the Mpeketoni attacks on political networks. Opposition parties have dismissed the president's claims. | |
Are you in the area? You can share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using "Kenya attacks" as the subject. |