The bodies keep piling up: From Kenya to Iraq, shocking images show how a wave of Islamist carnage has signalled a new era of barbaric terror across the world
Somali militants wielding automatic weapons attacked Mpeketoni assaulting the police station and setting two hotels on fire. Authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group. The town is about 60 miles from the Somali border. Kenya has experienced a wave of gunfire and explosive attacks in recent months.
Somali militants have shot dead at least 48 people after attacking two hotels and a police station in a small Kenyan coastal resort as locals were watching the World Cup.
The attack in Mpeketoni, which is about 30-miles southwest of the tourist centre of Lamu, came at the end of a weekend of bloodshed that has exposed the world to the shocking depravity of terrorists who appear emboldened by each other's acts.
The string of bloodthirsty atrocities, spanning two continents from Kenya to Iraq, has raised the fearful spectre of a new era of barbaric terror apparently sweeping the globe.
Shocking: Residents look at slain bodies of people killed when unidentified gunmen attacked the coastal Kenyan town of Mpeketoni - the latest in a string of Islamic militant attacks across two continents that have shocked the world
Ruthless: Images of Iraqi men being rounded up at gunpoint, beaten, herded into lorries and shot dead in a ditch in the desert by a row of masked ISIS fanatics sent shockwaves across the world
Fear and terror: Taliban insurgents sliced off the fingers of 11 people as punishment for voting in Afghanistan¿s democratic presidential election while 60 people were killed in a series of rocket barrages and scattered attacks
Detained: Israeli soldiers arrest Abdel Aziz Dweik (left) - speaker of the Palestinian parliament and a senior Hamas figure - at his home during a huge military operation to search for three missing Israeli teenagers
In the space of just three days:
- Images of Iraqi men being rounded up at gunpoint, beaten, herded into lorries and shot dead in a ditch in the desert by a row of masked ISIS fanatics sent shockwaves across the world.
- Taliban insurgents sliced off the fingers of 11 people as punishment for voting in Afghanistan’s democratic presidential election while 60 people were killed in a series of rocket barrages and scattered attacks
- The desperate search continued for three Israeli teenagers allegedly kidnapped by Hamas militants as more than 150 suspects were arrested.
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Death toll rising: Authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, for last night's atrocity in Kenya
A burnt out van in the town of Mpeketoni following an attack by Somali militants
The attack happened in Mpeketoni, which is about 30-miles southwest of the tourist centre of Lamu
Authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, for the attack last night
Kenya's top police commander, David Kimaiyo, said the gunmen also attacked a bank.
Any tourism in Mpeketoni is mostly local with few foreigners visiting the region. The town is about 60 miles from the Somali border.
Kenya has experienced a wave of gunfire and explosive attacks in recent months.
The U.S., UK, France, Australia, and Canada have all recently upgraded their terror threat warnings for the country.
U.S. Marines behind sandbag bunkers are now stationed on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi.
The Red Cross, which said it had personnel on the ground, put the death toll at 34. Kimaiyo had earlier said it was 27 but that it could rise.
The Interior Ministry said that at about 8pm two mini-vans entered the town before militants disembarked and began shooting.
Attack occurred in the town of Mpeketoni, which is about 30 miles from the tourist centre Lamu (pictured)
Kenya's National Disaster Operations Centre said military surveillance planes were launched shortly afterward.
The nearby town of Lamu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the country's oldest inhabited town.
The region saw a spate of kidnappings of foreign tourists in 2011 that Kenya said was part of its motivation for attacking Somalia.
Since those attacks and subsequent terror warnings tourism has dropped off sharply around Lamu.
Al-Shabab has vowed to carry out terror attacks to avenge the Kenyan military presence in Somali.
At least 67 people were killed in September when four al-Shabab gunmen attacked an upscale mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Kenya sent troops to Somalia in October 2011.
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