The bodies keep piling up: From Kenya to Iraq shocking new images show how a wave of Islamist carnage has signalled a new era of barbaric terror across the world

• Images of Iraqi men being shot dead in a ditch by ISIS militants shock world
• Taliban insurgents hack off fingers of 11 men for voting in general election
• Search continues for three Israeli teens kidnapped by Hamas in Palestine
• Former Nigerian president says kidnapped schoolgirls may never be found
• Kenya attack happened as residents watched World Cup matches last night
• Authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group
• Assault happened in Mpeketoni which is 60 miles from Somali border

By Tara Brady and Matthew Blake

Somali militants have shot dead at least 48 people after attacking two hotels and a police station in a small Kenyan coastal town hall as locals were watching the World Cup.
The attack in Mpeketoni, which is about 30-miles southwest of the tourist centre of Lamu, came at the end of a weekend of bloodshed that has exposed the world to the shocking depravity of terrorists who appear emboldened by each other's acts.
The string of bloodthirsty atrocities, spanning two continents from Kenya to Iraq, has raised the spectre of a new era of barbaric terror that is sweeping the globe.

Kenya: Residents look at slain bodies of people killed when unidentified gunmen attacked the coastal Kenyan town of Mpeketoni - the latest in a string of Islamic militant attacks across two continents that have shocked the world

Iraq: Images of Iraqi men being rounded up at gunpoint, beaten, herded into lorries and shot dead in a ditch in the desert by a row of masked ISIS fanatics sent shockwaves across the world

Afghanistan: Taliban insurgents sliced off the fingers of 11 people as punishment for voting in Afghanistan¿s democratic presidential election while 60 people were killed in a series of rocket barrages and scattered attacks

Palestine: Israeli soldiers arrest Abdel Aziz Dweik (left) - speaker of the Palestinian parliament and a senior Hamas figure - at his home during a huge military operation to search for three missing Israeli teenagers

Grim prediction: The former president of Nigeria has said he does not believe all of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram, seen here in a video released by their kidnappers, will return home

In the space of just three days:

• Images of Iraqi men being rounded up at gunpoint, beaten, herded like cattle into lorries and shot dead in a ditch by a row of masked ISIS fanatics sent shockwaves across the world.
• Taliban insurgents sliced off the fingers of 11 people as punishment for voting in Afghanistan’s democratic presidential election while 60 people were killed in a series of rocket barrages and scattered attacks
• The desperate search continued for three Israeli teenagers allegedly kidnapped by Hamas militants as more than 150 suspects were arrested in relation to the abduction.
• Nigeria's former president admitted that the 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants two months ago may never be found.

Over the past month, the world's media has been awash with gruesome images depicting insurgent barbarism whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya, Palestine or Syria.
The terror groups behind these acts appear to relish their growing publicity, increasingly courting online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to promote their hate-filled agendas of murder and oppression.
Professor Lee Marsden, and international terrorism expert and head of East Anglia University's School of Political, Social and International Studies, said: 'The levels of brutality seen here by ISIS and al-Shabaab, are no different from what we have seen before.
'What is changing, however, is the way these groups publicise their acts to maximise coverage.
'Clearly an element of publicising such acts on the internet is to show other terror groups what these groups are capable of and the lengths to which they will go to promote their cause.
'Certainly in Iraq, which is widely regarded as being a tool of the Americans - anything that shows they can defeat the Iraqi army is not just a defeat of Shia forces but also a victory over the West. And it makes for a very powerful recruiting tool.'

Terror: Pictures posted online by ISIS show men purportedly moments before their executions, as they are herded into large trucks and driven to their deaths. They huddled and cowered in the overfilled vehicles, some covering their faces as they awaited their fate

Carnage: Footwear is pictured amid broken glass at the scene of a bomb blast in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, today. It was one of a series of attacks designed to disrupt voting in the country's election that killed 60

Missing: American-born Naftali Frenkel (left) was abducted with Israelis Eyal Yifrah (centre), 19, and Gilad Shaar (right), 16, as they headed home from a West Bank religious school in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc

Armed: Israeli soldiers patrol the streets of the West Bank town of Hebron early this morning. They arrested 40 Palestinians overnight, bringing the total detained since Thursday's abduction to 150

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appears in a video where he showed some of the hundreds of schoolgirls his terror group abducted nearly two months ago

In Iraq, another town fell to ISIS militants this morning, solidifying their hold in the north of the country, as evidence of the jihadists' brutal reign intensified with shocking images of fighters massacring helpless prisoners.
Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border, was taken before dawn today a week after Mosul, Iraq's second city, fell to the jihadist fighters.
It came as pictures posted on a militant website appeared to show masked fighters forcing captives to lie down in a shallow ditch. Further images seem to show the bodies of the men soaked in blood after being shot.

More...

• The slaughter that shames Tony Blair: Outcry from all sides over former prime minister's 'Crusader' call for a new blitz on Iraq as the country descends into a bloodbath
• Rounded up to be killed: ISIS militants seize dozens of Iraqi soldiers before driving them to the desert to be shot
• ISIS jihadists tighten their grip on Iraq with capture of Tal Afar as UN hits out at 'deeply disturbing' soldier massacre pictures shocking the world

Most of the soldiers who appear in the pictures are in civilian clothes. Some are shown wearing military uniforms underneath, indicating they may have hastily disguised themselves as civilians to try to escape.
Other scenes show men purportedly moments before their executions, as they are herded like cattle into large trucks and driven to their deaths. They huddled and cowered in the overfilled vehicles, some covering their faces as they awaited their fate.
'This is the fate of the Shi'ites which Nuri (al-Maliki, Iraq's president) brought to fight the Sunnis,' a caption to one of the pictures reads.
Meanwhile, in nearby Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents hellbent on destroying the first peaceful transfer of authority, ordered voters not to participate in the weekend's general election.
Anyone who did in Taliban-held areas, faced having their voting fingers hacked off as a punishment. The referendum was further marred by a series of rocket barrages and other scattered attacks that killed 60.

Death toll rising: Authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, for last night's atrocity in Kenya

A burnt out van in the town of Mpeketoni following an attack by Somali militants

Later on Saturday, a minibus hit an improvised explosive device in the northern Samangan province, killing six women, one child and four men.
And in Israel today, the mother of one of three Israeli teenagers abducted in the West Bank issued a emotional message to her son, telling him the authorities are 'doing everything' to bring the boys home.
'Mommy and Daddy and your brothers love you until the end of the world and you should know that the people of Israel are doing all they can to bring you back home,' Racheli Frenkel told her U.S.-born son Naftali.
Her comments came as Israel arrested 40 more people, including a senior figure in the Palestinian government, as part of a massive manhunt for the teenagers it says were kidnapped by Hamas.
American-born Frenkel was abducted with Israelis Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Gilad Shaar, 16, as they headed home from a West Bank religious school in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
The crisis has escalated already heightened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, which is headed by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas but backed by Hamas, as Israeli special forces arrested more than 150 people as their hunt for the boys continued.
And in further blow to the global fight against terrorism, Nigeria's former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, said the 200 schoolgirls taken snatched from the classrooms in the village of Chibok in northeast Nigeria in April may never return home.
Obasanjo, who stepped down in 2007 and nurtured Jonathan's own rise to power, said President Goodluck Jonathan's administration had taken too long to respond to the mass abduction.
‘I believe that some of them will never return. We will still be hearing about them many years from now,’ Obasanjo told the BBC's Hausa-language radio service. ‘If you get all of them back, I will consider it a near-miracle...'
Boko Haram, which wants to set up an Islamist caliphate in Africa's largest economy, has fought back against an army offensive and killed thousands in bomb and gun attacks, striking as far afield as the central city of Jos and the capital Abuja.
In Kenya, authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, for last night's atrocity that saw at least 48 people killed when gunmen in two minibuses sped into a town on Kenya's coast, shooting soccer fans gathered to watch a World Cup match in a television hall and targeting hotels and a bank, police and witnesses said on Monday.

The attack happened in Mpeketoni, which is about 30-miles southwest of the tourist centre of Lamu

Authorities have blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, for the attack last night

Police said Somalia's Al Shabaab Islamist group was most likely to blame for Sunday night's assault on the town of Mpeketoni, which lies on the Indian Ocean coastline that runs north from Kenya's main port of Mombasa to the Somali border.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault, the latest in a spate of gun and bomb attacks in recent months that have hurt Kenya's struggling tourist industry.
Kenya had said it would be on alert during the World Cup to ensure public showings of matches were kept safe.
'The attackers were so many and were all armed with guns. They entered the video hall where we were watching a World Cup match and shot indiscriminately at us,' Meshack Kimani told Reuters by telephone. 'They targeted only men but I was lucky. I escaped by hiding behind the door.'
Sunday's assault is the worst since last September when Al Shabaab gunmen attacked Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, leaving 67 people dead.
After Westgate, Al Shabaab warned of more attacks, saying they were determined to drive Kenyan troops out of Somalia. Kenya, whose soldiers are deployed as part of an African peacekeeping force battling militants, says it won't pull out.
The gunmen raced into Mpeketoni in two minibuses, the kind used as public taxis in Kenya, and hit two hotels, a bank and a police station with guns and at least one explosive device. Witnesses said there were about 30 gunmen involved.
'More bodies have been recovered and right now we are talking about 48 dead persons,' Leonard Omollo, Lamu County police commander, told Reuters on telephone. 'All the dead are men. There are no women or children.'
Those killed include a policeman who worked as a driver for a police chief in the town, said David Kimaiyo, the inspector general of Kenya's police. Many Mpeketoni residents fled from the attack into nearby forests, he said.

Local people from Mpeketoni in Kenya photographed after the attack by Somali militants last night

Dangerous: Mpeketoni is about 60 miles from the Somali border and few foreigners visit the region

Police said no arrests had yet been made and said an investigation was underway to determine whether militants or a criminal gang had carried out the attack.
'Right now it is still premature to say who is behind the attack until investigations are done, but the initial suspicion is Al Shabaab,' Mwenda Njoka, spokesman of Kenya's internal security ministry, told a Kenyan television channel.
Al Shabaab bombed crowds watching World Cup soccer matches on television in the Ugandan capital Kampala in 2010, killing 77 people. Uganda also has troops in Somalia.
There were no immediate reports of foreign visitors being hurt in Sunday's attack. Mpeketoni is not a major holiday destination, but the assault could further damage the tourist industry as it lies just 30 km (20 miles) from Lamu, a historic Arab trading port that is a popular attraction.

Attack occurred in the town of Mpeketoni, which is about 30 miles from the tourist centre Lamu (pictured)

The Kenya Red Cross said at least two of the casualties had been evacuated to a hospital in Lamu.
Kenyan hotels say bookings have dropped sharply because of recent attacks and in the wake of warnings by Western nations about travel to Kenya. Some hotels on the coast say they face closure, while some hoteliers in land who offer safari trips say reservations are down by 30 percent or more.
A Reuters television reporter in Mpeketoni saw at least six bodies strewn on roads in the town. Ten burnt-out vehicles were also seen in the area and a Kenyan bank branch was gutted in the attack, the reporter said.
The Interior Ministry said it had sent up surveillance aircraft to scan the area. A Reuters witness saw two military helicopters patrolling over the town on Monday morning.