NAIROBI, Kenya — Gunmen from Somalia’s Islamist insurgent group, the Shabab, attacked a bus in northeastern Kenya on Saturday and killed 28 people after singling out those aboard the vehicle who were not Muslims, the Kenyan police said.
The Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack through the group’s radio station in Somalia, saying it was in retaliation for recent raids by Kenyan forces on four mosques in Mombasa.
Nineteen men and nine women were killed after being removed from the bus, said the inspector general of the Kenyan police, David Kimaiyo.
Later on Saturday, Kenya’s military said that its aircraft had destroyed a Shabab camp in Somalia and killed 45 rebels.
The bus, which was traveling to the capital, Nairobi, with 60 passengers, was hijacked about 30 miles from the town of Mandera near Kenya’s border with Somalia, two police officers said.
The insurgents, who forced the bus off the road with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade, ordered all of the passengers out of the vehicle and separated those who appeared not to be Muslims from the rest, the officers said. The 28 victims were shot at close range, the officers said.
The police officers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the news media.
Since 2011, when Kenya sent troops into Somalia to help quell the Shabab’s insurgency, the rebels have carried out at least 135 attacks in Kenya.
Kenya has been struggling to contain extremism linked to the Shabab within its borders. Since Monday, the authorities have shut down four mosques in Mombasa after the police said they found explosives and a gun during raids of the sites.
Some Kenyan Muslims believe that the police planted the weapons to justify closing the mosques, said Khelef Khalifa, chairman of the group Muslims for Human Rights. Mr. Khalifa warned that the methods being used by the government would actually increase support for extremists.
The government said that the four mosques had been recruitment centers for the Shabab.
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