Somali-linked Islamists killed at least 50 people in a Kenyan coastal town while going door to door executing men in front of their families and killing others who had gathered to watch World Cup soccer on television, according to The Associated Press.
The gunmen went door to door demanding to know if the men inside were Muslim and if they spoke Somali in order to single out non-Muslims before opening fire, witnesses said on Monday, the AP reported.
The group said on Monday 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, the AP reported.
"Kenya is now officially a war zone and as such any tourists visiting the country do so at their own peril," the group said, after staging the biggest assault since its gunmen attacked Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in September, which left 67 dead, according to the AP.
Witnesses said those gathering for the screenings fled just before the attackers arrived but were found in hiding places and then shot, the AP reported. Hotels, a bank and a police station were also attacked, leaving a trail of dead across the town. Witnesses also said the gunmen roamed for hours into Monday morning.
"The wives who came to identify the bodies said the attackers forced them and their children to watch as they killed their husbands," said Peter Kamotho, a tailor volunteering at a makeshift morgue where bodies of 48 men lay under a cover, according to the AP.
Some of the wounded were taken to a hospital in Lamu, a historic Arab trading port that is a big tourist attraction about 20 miles from Mpeketoni, which is on the coastline between Mombasa and the Somali border in the north, the AP reported.
Kenyan hotels say bookings have dropped sharply because of recent attacks and Western travel warnings, according to the AP. Some hotels on the coast say they face closure, while some hoteliers inland who offer safaris say reservations are down by 30 percent or more.
