Monday, April 14, 2008
The bodies were discovered at the Hakab Private English School, in Belet Weyne, near the Ethiopian border..
Local police chief Abdi Aden Adow said two of the victims, a 32-year-old woman and a 70-year-old man, had British passports and were of Somali origin. The other two were Kenyan.
A guard at the school said the four teachers had been shot in the head.
Residents said the killers arrived late on Sunday, took up strategic positions, freed prisoners and burned the governor's house before withdrawing.
The police chief, said security forces fled when they heard the insurgents were on their way.
A spokesman for the Islamist al-Shabab Movement, who admitted its men took the town said: "We heard that the foreigners were killed but we do not claim responsibility."
Al-Shabab, which means "the youth," is the armed wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement.
Its fighters have invaded nearly a dozen towns in brief attacks in the past few months, but usually withdraw after a few hours.
In the southern town of Merka, an attack on a cinema killed five people and wounded 16 on Sunday. Attackers threw a grenade into the building, where hundreds of young people were watching a Hollywood movie.
Source: AP, April 12, 2008