Saturday August 5, 2017
Security officers guard a police car, which was burnt during an attack on a convoy escorting Mandera governor Ali Roba, outside Mandera town, near Kenya's border with Somalia and Ethiopia, March 13, 2015.Reuters
More than 50 suspected al Shabaab militants yesterday made daring simultaneous attacks on two police camps and a mobile telecommunication mast in Lafey, Mandera county.
One officer was killed and another seriously injured. A woman whose house is near the police station was injured in her head with a stray bullet.
The 2.30am attack led to a fierce gunfight that lasted several hours and police killed one militant and injured another.
The attackers destroyed four police cars.
Northeastern regional commissioner Mohamud Saleh said the attackers were in three groups when they launched the attack.
Those who attacked the telecommunication mast were repulsed by security officers manning the facility, he said. The mast was recently upgraded to 3G for the election purposes.
Saleh said the slain officer was killed outside his house, dismissing reports that he was butchered by the militants.
The second group attacked the regular police camp and the third attacked the AP camp. The camps are 100 metres apart.
Saleh told journalists in his office that the four vehicles were burnt using rocket propelled grenades, which the militants hauled from a distance. Two of the vehicles were already grounded.
Sources said the groups attacked the regular police and immediately started spraying bullets at the camp, forcing the security officers, who seemed overpowered, to scamper for safety.
“The militants, who seemed well versed with the terrain and organised in their operations, then left with a DCI vehicle towards Somalia, 8 kms away, with their dead and injured colleagues,” the source said.
Saleh, however, told the Star on the phone that the "brave officers" from the two camps engaged the militants in battle and even took the militants' magazines and ammunitions.
“Our officers managed to recover several magazines and ammunitions at the scene that belonged to them. All our officers were accounted for contrary to earlier reports that there are some who were either missing or had been kidnapped,” he said.
Mandera county has borne the brunt of terror attacks for the last few years due to its proximity to Somalia.
Saleh assured residents, especially those at the border towns, that the government is working round the clock to ensure peace and security during the Tuesday General Election.