Kenya: Gunmen kill police officers in new border raids

At least one police officer was killed and another is feared dead after a rescue party was ambushed by suspected  Al-Shabaab terrorist in Garissa County on Monday.

The officers, 59 in total, were responding to a distress call by a police patrol team, whose vehicle had run over a landmine.

Independent sources said two officers, one from the Administration Police and the other from the regular police, were killed.

In a statement yesterday, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Joseph Boinnet, said four officers were injured and airlifted to Nairobi for treatment and that everyone had been accounted for. There were no civilian casualties.

Four police vehicles were damaged, two of them burnt beyond repair.
In response to the attack, a joint Kenya Defence Force and police operation was launched yesterday morning.

It was not clear why the military was not more involved in patrolling the county, which has come under the most provocative raids by Al-Shabaab in recent months.

The terrorists have reportedly taken over mosques and raised their flag on Kenyan territory for hours.

Sources said the militants had been attacking in big numbers and were heavily armed, while the police appeared to be relatively fewer, lightly armed and without properly coordinated air support from the military.

The government spent the better part of Tuesday denying that any of the officers had died.