Ahmed Hussein
Sunday January 22, 2023
KDF troops on patrol along the Kenya-Somalia border. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]
WAJIR, KENYA — Security officials in Kenya say they have killed 10 suspected al-Shabab militants in Kenya's northeast, just a week after militants there killed four engineers near a regional development project.
Security officials say the operation targeted an al-Shabab hideout in Kenya's Garissa County, the scene of many al-Shabab attacks in the past.
"The operation took place in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and our multi-agency security team managed to neutralize 10 militants in the Bon, Galamagala division of Bura East sub-county," said Thomas Bett, deputy county commissioner.
Bett told the Reuters news agency that agents recovered rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices during the operation.
He told VOA that security agencies have heightened their operations in Garissa and said they will flush out the al-Shabab elements from the area.
"The operation was an intelligence led and we are saying we will sustain the operation to get rid of these al-Shabab elements, who have become a menace," Bett said.
The incident comes barely a week after the Islamist group killed four engineers at a Chinese construction site for the Lapsset transportation project.
Bett urged the public to give information to authorities and report anything suspicious.
"As a government we continue asking the people to share any crucial information, let them have confidence in the government, and that the government is going to protect them under whatever means," he said.
Somalia-based al-Shabab has been active in Kenya since 2011, when Kenya first contributed troops to the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
The Islamist militant group killed nearly 150 people at Garissa University College in 2015.