The fatalities occurred during an attack on a residential compound housing non-ethnic Somalis and non-Muslims in the northeastern Kenyan county of Mandera early on Thursday.

“We have suffered yet another attack in Mandera and sadly we have lost six people,” said the county’s governor, Ali Roba.

Reports said there were 33 people and the attackers used explosives to gain access to the gated building.

Kenya’s police chief Joseph Boinnet confirmed the assault, saying, “We highly suspect the attackers are members of the Shabab insurgent group, who have sneaked across the porous border.”

“These criminal gangs are desperate to hurt innocent Kenyans since they were defeated badly and routed out of all their hideouts in the neighboring country,” he added, referring to Somalia.

The Shabab, a group known for its campaign of terror in Somalia since 2006, has a long record of launching attacks in Kenya as revenge for the country’s contribution to the African Union’s mission in Somalia. The AU troops seek to bolster the weak UN-backed government of Somalia against the militancy.

The government in Nairobi sent over 3,000 soldiers to Somalia in late 2011 after al-Shabab carried out a series of raids inside Kenya. The group has been pushed out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other major cities in the country by the African Union Mission in Somalia, but keeps carrying out attacks against civilians and troops in the country.

Kenya’s counties of Mandera and Garissa on the border have been hit by an upsurge of attacks by the al-Shabab militants. In early April, the group carried out an attack against the Garissa University College campus, killing nearly 150 people.

The militant group has vowed to continue attacks until Kenya pulls its troops out of Somalia, Press TV reported.

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