Armed men hurl grenades at Kenya town club

Gunmen have hurled grenades and sprayed bullets at a night club in the northeastern Kenyan town of Wajir, the latest in a series of attacks in the region, the Red Cross have said.

At least one person feared dead and five wounded in town of Wajir after three blasts and gunshots, Red Cross says.

One person was “feared dead” and five others were rushed to hospital with wounds late on Monday, said the Kenyan Red Cross, which reported “three blasts and gunshots” at the night club in Wajir, where Somalia’s al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab and other militia have carried out a string of raids.

No claim of responsiblity has been made for Monday’s attack.

Gunmen appeared to have targeted the night club popular with workers from outside the majority Muslim town.

Several key unions, including for civil servants, have warned members to leave the restive northeast until the government can ensure their safety.

Professionals working in the largely Muslim and ethnic Somali northeastern regions often come from further south in Kenya, where Christians make up about 80 percent of the population.

The gunfire followed last month’s attack in which fighters belonging to Somalia’s armed group al-Shabab executed 28 non-Muslims who were grabbed from a bus in the far northeast of the country, near the town of Mandera.

Al-Shabab said the bus attack was carried out in revenge for police raids on mosques in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa.

Security ‘lapses’

Kenya has suffered a series of deadly attacks since invading Somalia in 2011 to launch attacks on al-Shabab. Kenyan forces have since joined an African Union force battling the fighters.

On Sunday, Kenyan media reported the embattled interior minister and police chief may soon be sacked over “repeated lapses” in security following a wave of attacks.

Both officials have been under fire since last year’s attack by al-Shabab on the Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi, in which at least 67 people were killed. The attack on the shopping mall lasted four days.

Worries over internal security mounted when al-Shabab rebels then massacred 100 people in a string of raids against villages in the Lamu region on the Kenyan coast in June and July. (aljazeera)