Twelve killed in attack on Kenyan hotel

James Archibald / Cape Town, Oct 25 (DHA) - A grenade and bomb attack on a hotel in Mandera Town in Kenya in the early hours of this morning has left at least 12 people dead.

In an announcement this morning, government spokesman Eric Kiraithe said that an IED (improvised explosive device) exploded at about 3.30am this morning and that part of the building had collapsed, killing at least 12 people. He added that six people had been rescued from the debris and that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

"Mandera Town, is usually under 24 hour security surveillance and bomb experts are on site to establish the source of the explosives and gather further evidence" Kiraithe was reported by local newspaper The Star as having said.

Kiraithe added on Twitter that the initial investigations had already provided police with several leads to pursue.

Many media reports have alleged that the attackers were linked to al Shabaab, a militant group that was responsible for the killing of six people in the town in a separate attack earlier this month. However, Citizen Digital, the online unit for Kenya’s Citizen TV, this morning reported that North Eastern regional co-ordinator Amb Mohamud Saleh had ruled out direct involvement of Al-Shabaab militants in last night’s attack.

Saleh reportedly said that preliminary investigations showed that the attack was “carried out by radicalised criminal gangs operating within Mandera Town.”

Citizen Digital further reported that Saleh said the entire town had been cordoned off to allow for a search and rescue operation.

Saleh also said five people had been arrested in connection with the October 5 attack in the town, with three of them being members of the Al-Shabaab Harakat intelligence wing.