Suspected Al-Shabaab militia kills four police officers

BY ADOW JUBAT

GARISSA; KENYA: Four administration police officers were Friday evening killed and another one injured in a daring militia attack in a tail-end border division in Garissa County bordering the war-ravaged Somalia.

According to the residents and government officials, the militia suspected to be members of the dread Somali Islamist group; Al-Shabaab raided Galmagala Police Administration post in Fafi district 10 kilometres from Somalia border at 6.30pm and killed the officers manning the station.

The attack also saw scores of residents missing.

Confirming to The Standard, the Garissa County Commissioner Mr Rashid Khatour said the armed attackers totalling about 40 descended unexpectedly on the camp before starting indiscriminate attacks using mortars, rocket propelled grenades and gun fire.

“Our officers engaged the bandits in fierce gun fight. However, the officers who were at the station at the time were outnumbered by the attackers,” said the commissioner.

The injured officer was rushed to Garissa General Hospital where he is undergoing treatment and would be transferred to Nairobi for a better medication.

Khatour noted that scores of people who had been scared by the deafening gun shots and bursts of the explosive thrown at the administration police camp fled into the bushes and were currently being searched for by security personnel and the local people.

The administrator said the attackers who the security agency believes are members Al-Shabaab were targeting the security camp as they direct all their attacks on the camp selectively.

He said: “These criminal were out to dismantle the camp and kill all our security officers, but their evil terrorist plans were thwarted by our gallant security men who fought hard despite being overwhelmed by their attackers”.

The administrator confirmed that part of the iron made camp was destroyed by the raining mortars and rocket propelled grenades.

He however added that the armoury which the militia targeted for looting was intact with no firearm stolen.

He also added that two firearms loaded with unknown number of ammunition were reduced into shear ashes after being burnt in the mortar fire.

On May this year four security officers and two civilian were killed in a similar border incursion by Al-Shabaab in Abdi Sugow Administration Police camp in Dadaab district in Lagdera district.