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Five police officers killed, eight injured in Lamu Shabaab attack
Al-Shabaab fighters.
A massive multi-agency security operation has been intensified in Lamu’s Boni Forest and areas near the Kenya-Somalia border after suspected al-Shabaab militants killed five police officers.
The Wednesday evening attack also left eight others officers from the Special Operations Group (SOG) critically injured.
The incident happened when the Kenyan security team, composed of tens of the officers, was deployed to locate suspected terrorists in Boni Forest within Janjana areas.
A police report from Nyangoro Camp in Witu, Lamu West, explains that after two days of police patrolling the area, the team was confronted by a large group of heavily armed militants in Lehelo area.
An exchange of fire ensued between the security team and al-Shabaab, resulting in five police officers being shot dead and eight others critically injured.
A number of al-Shabaab terrorists are also believed to have been killed during the fire exchange.
All casualties were airlifted to Manda and later to Nairobi.
A security insider, who spoke in confidence, told the Nation on Friday that the killing of the police special operations group officers forced various security units operating in Lamu back to the drawing board to see how best they can deal with al-Shabaab.
They expressed disappointment that despite the government spending lots of money every year to fight al-Shabaab in Boni Forest, the terrorist group continues to launch attacks.
Lamu County Police Commander Kipsang Changach told the Nation on Friday that a massive operation is ongoing to pursue the attackers.
"It's indeed an unfortunate incident that the lives of our officers were lost in the course of duty. The operation to pursue the attackers is ongoing...We will not relent," said Mr Changach.
