Quick-thinking Muslims save passengers from slaughter

Muslims helped dress non-Muslims passengers in Islamic garb, to prevent extremists from identifying them for slaughter on a bus in northern Kenya, witnesses said.

Two people died in the attacks on Monday in northern Mandera County when gunmen believed to be Somalia's al-Shabab rebels shot at a bus and truck headed for Mandera town, North Eastern Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh said.

The bus was from travelling from the capital city, Nairobi, with 60 passengers when it was stopped at Papa City by a group of Islamic militants who shot the windscreen, witnesses said.

Some of the Muslim passengers gave non-Muslims head scarfs to try and conceal their identities when the bus stopped, probably remembering a previous attack in the same region last year when al-Shabab gunmen killed 28 non-Muslims from a bus, Abdrirahman Hussien, a 28-year-old teacher, said.