Al-Shabaab raids border village after targeting an explosive device on a military vehicle

Gunmen suspected to be al Shabaab militia have raided a border village in Garissa county on Saturday night, a few hours after targeting an explosive device on a military vehicle.

The militia stormed Bulla-Golol village in Fafi constituency of Garissa County before accosting a former civic leader and ordering him to take them to a construction site, where non resident construction workers were staying.

Confirming the incident, the North-eastern regional commissioner Amb Mohamud Swaleh, the militia numbering 10 arrived at the village at around 8 pm before they asked for the direction of the local Mosque, which is undergoing construction and the house of the area chief.

“We believe the assailants were asking for the direction of the Mosque because there were 7 non local construction workers who were staying at the place and there aim was to possibly harm them”, He said.

He added “Luckily, the masons fled from the site after the attackers started shooting indiscriminately from a distance as they headed toward the construction site. The workers managed to escape and disappear in nearby bushes unscathed”,

Amb Swaleh said, the 7 construction workers, who fled from the assailant were later rescued from their hide outs in the thicket by a team of security officers who responded to the militia attack in the remote village lying about 40 kilometers from the war-torn Somali border.

The regional commissioner said early on Saturday the same attackers targeted a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) vehicle heading to Garissa from their border base in Hullugho with Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

He said the gunmen numbering about 5-10 fled and took camouflaged themselves into stretch of heavy bushes, after they were outgunned in a fierce gunfight with the military officers, who later pursued them.

“These gunmen who attacked Bulla-Golol are also responsible for the planting of IED along Garissa-Hullugho road for our military. One of the vehicles hit the explosive, but fortunately it was too weak to cause any impact to any of our officers or the vehicle”, he noted.

He said adequate security personnel were deployed in the affected village adding that the security officers were on the footprints of the assailants who were fleeing toward the border of Somalia.

 “I don’t see these bandits as a serious threat to our security. They are moribund group who just can’t face our officers in a combat and they just keep looking for soft civilian targets so as to cause scare among Kenyans. I’m sure with the unwavering support of the local people, we shall crush them soon”, he said.