MANDERA, Kenya:July 4 (Xinhua) — Heavily armed Somali gunmen on Tuesday raided a border village in Mandera town in northern Kenya and shot dead a schoolgirl.
The 16-year-old schoolgirl was shot on the chest by the militants inside her home. Speaking to Xinhua on phone, local civic leader Mude Kore said the girl was sleeping with her mother and other siblings when the gunmen opened fire.
Others managed to escape unhurt. Mandera East District Commissioner Elvis Korir confirmed the incident, saying about 20 armed militants surrounded the remote village and opened fire at the homestead of two local police reservists. The administrator said the girl was the daughter of a police reservist and the attackers killed her after missing her father whom they were targeting.
The masked gunmen armed with AK47 and G3 assault rifles looted several shops of food stuff, soft drinks, clothes and money and then escaped toward the Somali border carrying their looted items on getaway donkeys.
The latest incident came after the suspected Somali militant group, Al-Shabaab, killed at least 17 people and injured more than 65 others after spraying bullets and hurling grenades on worshippers at two local churches on Sunday.
A series of attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Dadaab districts in northern Kenya even though the military reports gains against the extremist group by capturing its military bases and killing scores of its members. (Xinhua)
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