DHAKA: At least 15 people have been killed in a new attack by Islamist militants near Kenya’s coastal town of Mpeketoni.

Local police say, reports the BBC.

They say the gunmen raided two villages overnight.

Somalia’s al-Shabab group said it had carried out the attack, telling media that its ‘operations in Kenya will continue’.

At least 48 people died after the al-Qaeda-linked group attacked hotels and a police station in the town on Sunday.

Al-Shabab said it was revenge for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia and the killing of Muslims.

Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to help the weak UN-backed government defeat the militants.

‘We raided villages around Mpeketoni again last night,’ al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told media on Tuesday.

BDST: 1833 HRS, JUNE 17, 2014