KDF vows to track down and eliminate Al-Shabaab terrorists

The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) on Wednesday vowed to track down and eliminate al-Shabaab terrorists who attacked a military camp in Lamu on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning.

A soldier was injured in the so-called “probe attack” intended to test the defences of the camp.

Residents said Wednesday’s shooting at the camp lasted more than 30 minutes.

A KDF search party then tracked the terrorists to Milimani, near Baure, some 10 kilometres from the camp.

Four of the terrorists were killed in the ensuing firefight, the KDF said.

A rocket-propelled grenade, four AK-47 assault rifles, an improvised explosive device and two hand grenades were found, said Kenya Defence Forces spokesman David Obonyo.

“KDF wishes to assure the public that operations against al-Shabaab will continue until the terrorists are eliminated,” said Col Obonyo.

This is the second attack on security officers in two weeks.

Five police officers were killed last week after their vehicle was attacked by al-Shabaab in Mandera near the Somalia border.

Col Obonyo said troops were deployed in Lamu, a border county, for Operation Linda Boni that also involves the General Service Unit, National Intelligence Service and other security agencies.

The operation was launched last year to eliminate Jeshi Ayman, an al-Shabaab faction that operates in the dense Boni Forest, which traverses the Kenya-Somalia border.

Col Obonyo urged the public to be calm as security agents hunted down the terrorists.

“The situation is under control. Operation Linda Boni will continue till we eliminate all al-Shabaab elements in the forest. Residents should rest assured we shall protect them,” he said.

Later in the day, police officers in Malindi arrested four men suspected to be members of a terror cell operating in the town and from Boni Forest.

The four were seized at a Nakumatt supermarket.

Four other suspected members of the cell had been arrested earlier on Tuesday evening at a house near Breeze Point, also in Malindi, after a gunfight with police officers.

One of them, identified as Rashid Sultan Mbarak, was killed while a police officer was injured. A shotgun and a revolver were found in the house.

Officers also found eight bullets, a laptop, six mobile phones, photocopies of 18 national IDs belonging to different people, and 15 passport photographs with different names.

Those arrested on Wednesday were identified as Sultan Ali Sultan, Imran Hassan Ahmed, Shamir Shamsha Mohamed and Nasur Sultan Mbaraka.

The others are Hamud Majid Hamud, Khamis Hemed Khamisi, Hamza Juma Khamisi, and Abdullaziz Ali Sultan.

Their photographs were also circulated among security officials. A security brief said police carried out the operation “to flush out suspected al-Shabaab operatives who were planning a terror attack in the coastal region”.

The action followed reports by the public that a group of people had assembled in Malindi and their activities looked “suspicious”. Some of the suspects are believed to have travelled to Malindi from Mombasa last week to recruit youths into the terror network.

By Fred Mukinda, Charles Lwanga and Kalume Kazungu