4 killed in attack on car carrying school exam papers

Four people were killed and several injured in an attack on a vehicle carrying government officials transporting school examination papers in northeastern Kenya Thursday, police said.

The incident occurred about 110 kilometers (68 miles) from Mandera, a border town with Somalia, Kenya Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said.

It was unclear who carried out the attack on the car, he said, and police had been given conflicting accounts of what happened.

The Kenyan Red Cross said four people had been killed in heavy machine-gun fire on a small car heading from Mandera to a school.

Mandera is in a part of Kenya which suffers from chronic insecurity and both banditry and incursions by militant groups are relatively common.

Earlier this week, Kenya was shaken by twin grenade attacks in the capital, Nairobi -- one at a nightclub and a second at a crowded downtown bus station during rush hour -- which left one person dead and 20 injured.

A Kenyan man pleaded guilty Wednesday to being a member of the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab and was charged with causing grievous bodily harm in the bus station attack.

It is not clear if Thursday's vehicle attack is linked to Monday's violence.

The U.S. Embassy in Kenya warned last week it had credible information regarding an imminent terror attack, but offered no details on who might carry out such an attack.

Kenya has been on edge since it sent troops across the border into Somalia nearly two weeks ago to pursue militants with Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group that the United States and other countries consider a terrorist organization. Kenya's action followed the recent abductions of tourists and aid workers in Kenya. It blames the abductions on Al-Shabaab, which has denied involvement.

Al-Shabaab has threatened to attack Kenya if it does not withdraw its forces from Somalia.

Two Explosions Rock Nairobi

An explosion went off near a crowded bus stop Monday evening as people sought rides home, killing at least one person and wounding eight. The evening blast was the second of the day in Kenya's capital, twin assaults that came two days after the U.S. warned of possible terror attacks.

The U.S. warning had implied that the militant Somali group al-Shabab would carry out reprisal attacks in response to Kenyan troops' invasion of Somalia in mid-October. The Al Qaeda-linked group promised to unleash terror attacks in Nairobi in retaliation.

However, Monday's attacks appeared to target Kenyans, striking at a downtrodden bar and a bus stop in a working-class neighborhood.

Nairobi's provincial commissioner, Njoroge Ndirangu, said experts were still confirming what kind of device went off in the second blast, and that it was too early to tell if al-Shabab was involved.

The second blast went off in a blue-collar area of the city just outside the central business district. Throngs of people crowd the sidewalk and try to jam their way onto raucous minibuses known as matatus, the primary mode of transportation for Kenya's working class.

Peter Ndungu Kiarie, 35, said he was in his vehicle when he heard the second explosion and saw people rushing toward him. Many people were wounded in the legs, he said, suggesting the explosive device was lying on the ground.

"I assisted some until an ambulance came," he said.

The Kenyan Red Cross reported that one person was killed and eight others were taken to the hospital following the evening attack. A dozen people were wounded, three seriously, in the first blast at a blue-collar bar at around 1:15 a.m.

Police cordoned off the area but did not provide any immediate comment. Police have tightened security around hotels, bridges and fuel depots.

Al-Shabab is loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda and counts militant veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars among its ranks. The militant group carried out twin attacks in Kampala, Uganda in July 2010 that killed 76 people.

Given Al Qaeda's preference for large-scale attacks, even the twin blasts in Nairobi do not bear the hallmarks of a major, well-planned terror assault. The U.S. warning on Saturday also said likely targets include shopping malls and night clubs where foreigners congregate.

The weapon used in the early Monday attack was a Russian-made F1 grenade, police said. A similar type of grenade was used in a downtown Nairobi attack in December 2010 at a bus station. That attack killed one person.

Three grenades exploded at a political rally in downtown Nairobi in June 2010, killing six people. In December that year, two traffic police died when they were shot and a third was seriously injured by a grenade.

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Somali militants move fighters to border with Kenya

 Islamic militants have moved fighters to the Somali border town of Afmado in an effort to combat Kenyan forces who have entered Somalia, the militant group Al-Shabaab said Tuesday.
The group said it viewed the Kenyan forces crossing of the joint border as "an affront to Somalia's territorial sovereignty."
This move of fighters, which started Monday, comes after the militant group had threatened to "come into Kenya" if Kenyan forces did not leave Somalia.


"Kenyan troops have entered 100 kilometers into Somalia, and their planes are bombarding and killing residents," Sheikh Ali Mahmud Ragi, spokesman for Al-Shabaab, said in an online message posted on a jihadist website this week. "We shall come into Kenya if you do not go back."
In response, the Kenyan and Somali governments issued a joint communique declaring Al-Shabaab "a common enemy to both countries." They pledged to work together to stabilize Somalia and cooperate in security and military operations.


Kenyan forces crossed into Somalia to pursue Al-Shabaab fighters after the recent abductions of tourists and aid workers in Kenya heightened tensions in East Africa. Kenya invoked the U.N. charter allowing military action in self-defense against its largely lawless neighbor.
The abductions are part of a "recent spate of blatant attacks" that are part of "a changed strategy by Al-Shabaab calculated to terrorize civilians," the communique said.


"If you are attacked by an enemy, you have to pursue that enemy through hot pursuit and to try (to) hit wherever that enemy is," said Kenyan Defense Minister Yusuf Haji in a news conference that aired Sunday on CNN affiliate NTV.
Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al Qaeda, has been fighting to impose its interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on Somalia. The group issued a statement Tuesday, however, denying responsibility for the abductions.


"These are mere suppositions unfounded in any solid evidence," the statement said. "Kenyan authorities have been seeking justification for an aggressive incursion on to Somali territory."
On September 11, armed bandits broke into a beachfront cottage where Britons Judith and David Tebbutt, both in their 50s, were staying. David Tebbutt was shot dead while trying to resist the attack. His wife was grabbed and spirited away on a speedboat, and is believed to have been taken into Somalia.
On October 1, pirates made another cross-border raid, this time snatching a French woman in her 60s from a holiday home on Manda Island where she lived part of the year.
Earlier this month, gunmen abducted two Spanish workers from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders from the Dadaab refugee complex, about 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) from the Somali border.


Kenya announced its new tactics days after African Union forces claimed victory against Al-Shabaab in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The military said last week it had taken the remaining Al-Shabaab strongholds in the far northeast of the city.
"The challenge is now to protect civilians from the sort of terror attack we saw last week, as they attempt to rebuild their lives," said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia. He was referring to a suicide truck bombing in Mogadishu this month that left dozens dead. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility. Other Al-Shabaab attacks that week led to the deaths of at least 10 civilians.


Federal and African Union forces have battled Al-Shabaab in the impoverished and chaotic nation for years. Many analysts believe the military push has severely affected Al-Shabaab, along with targeted strikes against organization members and the weakening of al Qaeda.
Al-Shabaab said in August it was withdrawing from Mogadishu, and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, backed by African Union peacekeepers, now controls most districts of the capital, the U.N. office has said.
However, the group still poses a threat, Ankunda has said.