Al-Shabab terrorists behead 9 civilians in southeastern Kenya

Suspected Takfiri al-Shabab terrorists have decapitated at least nine people in an attack on a pair of villages in southeastern Kenya, near the border with restive Somalia.

The deadly attack was carried out overnight on Saturday, when some 15 suspected al-Qaeda-linked terrorists stormed the two neighboring villages of Jima and Poromoko in the Kenyan coastal district of Lamu, near the Somali border, gathering their civilian victims together before beheading them, Kenyan local police and officials said.

A senior police officer at police headquarters in the capital Nairobi, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also confirmed the brutal incident. "It is true, we have lost nine people in today's attack," he said, without providing further details.

According to villagers, most of the heavily armed assailants appeared to be ethnic Somalis. The victims “were slaughtered like chickens”, said a villager, who witnessed the incident.

Residents of the two villages had called the police a day earlier, reporting the presence of al-Shabab terrorists in the area, but no police forces were apparently deployed in the area to boost security.

The Somalia-based terror group has for years conducted deadly cross-border attacks in Kenya but it has rarely decapitated the victims.

The Saturday attack was carried out in the vicinity of Pandanguo village, where terrorists killed three police officers in an attack on a police post in Lamu on Friday.

SS