100 suspected al-Shabaab members killed

Nairobi - Kenyan security forces have killed more than 100 suspected members of the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab who were pursued into Somalia after massacring 28 people on a bus, Deputy President William Ruto said on Sunday.

At least 28 people were killed on Saturday in the bus attack, in which al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility.

Insurgents of the al-Qaeda-linked group hijacked a passenger bus in the village of Arabia in Mandera county and shot dead everyone who failed to read verses of the Koran. The hijackers drove the bus, which was bound for Nairobi, towards the Somali border, where they shot the victims in the head, authorities said.

Somali passengers were separated from non-Somali passengers before the killings, after which the insurgents fled into Somalia on foot.

"Our security responded swiftly," Ruto said in a press conference, the Daily Nation newspaper reported online. "They identified, followed and struck the perpetrators of the heinous crime."

He said that two operations were conducted against the suspected perpetrators of the bus attack.

"Our retaliatory action left more than 100 fatalities and four camps were destroyed," he said.

Ruto held the press conference in the absence of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Many of the 60 bus passengers were Kenyan government officials, police officers, health workers and teachers.

Kenyan authorities had said Saturday that they launched a major ground and air operation in pursuit of the bus attackers.