Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda (AQ) affiliate based in Somalia, has claimed responsibility for dressing in local military attire and decapitating up to five Christians in Kenya, where more than 80 percent of the population adheres to the Christian faith.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for the terrorist group, conceded that al-Shabaab beheaded five men, noting that it had targeted non-Muslims.

In an online statement, the brutal jihadist group explicitly alleged that its terrorists had “managed to temporarily control Hindi town in Kenya’s Lamo coastal province, killing five occupiers who are Kenyan Christians.”

The two al-Shabaab attacks were carried out Wednesday in Lamu County, Kenya, a country where about 83 percent are considered Christian and nearly 11 percent Muslim.

“They were dressed in military gear and had AK-47 rifles. They beheaded four men before fleeing into the forest. All the victims are men. Police have already arrived at the scene and taken the bodies to the mortuary,” Gilbert Kitiyo, the commissioner of Kenya’s Lamu County, told Reuters, referring to the al-Qaeda-linked attackers.

The Kenyan county commissioner noted that the jihadists surrounded all the victims, making it difficult for them to avoid death.

Africa is home to various Islamic terrorist groups including the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and its affiliate Boko Haram, who are known to attack Christians as well as some AQ branches like al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Although its birthplace is Somalia, the al-Qaeda wing is known to wreak havoc in neighboring countries, particularly those that belong to the U.S.-backed Somali National Arm African Union peacekeepers who are combating the terrorist group, which controls a significant swathe of the East African country of Somalia.

This year, the United States vowed to deploy “dozens” of additional troops from the American Army’s storied 101st Airborne Division, expected to double the numbers of U.S. special operations forces already training and assisting the Somali National Army and African Union peacekeepers combating the terrorist group.

According to the latest annual report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), “Kenya is a majority-Christian country with significant Muslim populations in the capital and northeast and along the coast.”

“Since 2011, when Kenya deployed its military to Somalia to counter al-Shabaab gains in that country, al-Shabaab has expanded its assaults into Kenya, perpetrating dozens of terrorist attacks in the country. The group has killed both Muslims and non-Muslims, but al-Shabaab terrorists routinely seek to identify and isolate Christians during their strikes,” explains USCIRF.

The commission suggested that there are no signs that the al-Shabaab perpetrated attacks along the Kenya-Somalia border will soon cease.

Soon after taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the American military to escalate the American-backed offensive against the Somalia-based terrorist group, including launching more airstrikes and doubling the number of U.S. special operations forces in the East African country.

In response, Al-Shabaab vowed to intensify the number of deadly attacks as part of a “doubled response” to President Trump’s approval of expanded U.S. military efforts against the terror group, revealed the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.

In a propaganda video disseminated this year, titled “They Are Not Welcome—They Shall Burn In Their Fire,” al-Shabaab stresses its adherence to global jihadist principles, noting that “defending Muslim lands is from the most important of individual obligations,” reports the Long War Journal (LWJ).

“Al-Shabaab is an official al-Qa’ida (AQ) affiliate and has ties to other AQ affiliates, including al‑Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb,” revealed the U.S. State Department earlier this year. “The group’s leader is Ahmed Diriye aka Ahmed Umar aka Abu Ubaidah.”

“Al-Shabaab is estimated to have several thousand members,” it added.