Militants from a Somalia-based Islamist group kidnapped 12 women during a raid on two coastal villages in Kenya, the BBC reported.
The Monday night raid on the Poromoko district villages near the town of Mpeketoni also left 15 people dead, locals said. The attacks occurred just one day after the same al-Shabaab militants launched a violent attack on several hotels and a police station in Mpeketoni that killed 49 people.
Presient Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed claims that the raids were carried out by militants. Mpeketoni police had prior knowledge about the raid, but did nothing about it, he added.
"Evidence indicates that local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of the heinous crime," the president said according to the BBC.
The raids were "well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community," Kenyatta said.
The rebels blocked the local telecommunication system before the raid to make sure no one would be able to sound the alarm, officials said.
Al-Shabaab said the raids were retaliation for the murders of Muslims and for Kenyan troops being stationed in Somalia, the BBC reported. Kenyan troops were sent to Somalia in 2011 to help the unstable government battle the rebels.
"We raided villages around Mpeketoni again last night," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, an al-Shabaab spokesman, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Most of the victims were police officers and wildlife officials, the spokesman told AFP, according to the BBC.
Officials are still recovering bodies from Sunday's raid, with the 49th victim found on Tuesday, the BBC reported. Nearly 50 people remain missing.
"There's no time to mourn, we're just burying [the victims]," a town resident told the BBC.
Visitors from the U.S. and U.K. have been advised to avoid the Kenyan coast. The U.K. has also closed its consulate in Mombasa and British tourists were moved out of the area in May, according to the BBC.
