10 dead as Islamists strike again in Kenya

At least 10 people have been killed in a new overnight attack near Kenya's coast, police say, with Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shabab rebels claiming responsibility.

Police said gunmen, apparently part of the same group that massacred close to 50 people in the town of Mpeketoni overnight on Sunday, attacked a village in the same region overnight on Monday and left 10 dead.

"We carried out another attack last night. We killed 20 people, mainly police and Kenyan wildlife wardens. The commandos have been going to several places looking for military personnel," Shabab's military spokesman, Abdulaziz Abu Musab, told AFP by telephone on Tuesday.

"The commandos have fulfilled their duties and returned peacefully to their base," he added, without saying if the attackers were still in Kenya or had driven back across the Somali border, around 100 kilometres north.

Kenyan police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki confirmed an attack had occurred overnight, although local police and a county official said there were at least 10 dead.

"Our officers are trying to access the scene and the details are sketchy," she said.

Al-Shabab rebels claimed in a statement an attack on a Kenyan coastal town that left 49 people dead, and warned tourists and foreigners to stay away from Kenya.

They said the attack was revenge for the "Kenyan government's brutal oppression of Muslims in Kenya through coercion, intimidation and extrajudicial killings of Muslim scholars".

It also condemned the "Kenyan military's continued invasion and occupation of our Muslim lands and the massacre of innocent Muslims in Somalia".

"To the tourists visiting Kenya we say this: Kenya is now officially a war zone and as such any tourists visiting the country do so at their own peril," the group said.

"Foreigners with any regard for their safety and security should stay away from Kenya or suffer the bitter consequences of their folly. You have been forewarned!" it added.