Tuesday, May 20, 2014
By Muchemi Wachira
FILE | NATION Kenya Defence Forces soldiers patrol a street in Mandera, which is prone to terror attacks. Bodies of security officers recently killed by Al Shabaab in Somalia were Tuesday brought home.
Mandera Town was plunged into mourning on Tuesday when the bodies of eight people killed in a shoot-out with Al-Shaabab were brought home.
The victims were six security officers and two civilians, who were part of a joint Kenya Defence Forces and the General Service Unit team pursuing Al-Shaabab fighters, according to County Commissioner Michael Tialal.
The terrorists had hijacked four pick-ups transporting miraa (khat) from Meru to Mandera.
Mr Tialal said the security team pursued them towards Khadijo–Haj Village in Somalia, where they were ambushed by the gunmen, leading to the shoot-out.
Two officers identified as Sergeant Kennedy Sulubu and Constable Nick Malipe were shot dead. The other victims were Kenya Police Reservists Bishar Bariare, Aftin Gurale, Hussein Daudi, Hussein Dubow and Ali Farah.
Their burnt bodies were airlifted from the scene of the ambush by the military.
Bodies of the two civilians — a driver and a loader— who had ferried the security team, were handed over to their relatives on Monday by the terrorists, according to the county commissioner.
Other reservists were seriously injured.
The attackers escaped with gunshot wounds, said the administrator. The reservists, Mr Hussein Aliozi, Mr Adan Abdi Osman, Mr Aden Ibrahim and Mr Abdillahi Jimalewere, were admitted to Mandera County Hospital.
Police said the vehicles were hijacked on Sunday at Arabia, 10 kilometres from the Kenya-Somalia border. One of the pick-ups was set on fire by the gunmen who then fled with two others towards Somalia, according to police.
The driver of the fourth pick-up escaped.
Mr Dekow Abey, a reservist, informed the police about the attack.
Killed in ethnic violence
At the time of the hijack, the security team led by Mr Tialal was a few kilometres away heading to Takaba, where three people had been killed in ethnic violence.
“These militias appeared to have had a good strategy since they sprayed my car with bullets at the time they were hijacking the miraa vehicles just five kilometres from where we were,” Mr Tialal said by telephone.
His vehicle’s windscreen was shattered but no one was injured.
Kenya has been targeted by the Al-Shabaab since it sent troops to Somalia in October 2011.