Several Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers are feared dead while dozen others were injured when a patrol vehicle they were travelling in ran over an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Baure, Lamu East.
The incident happened at around 9.30am on Tuesday.
Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia said the number of casualties remains unknown as the area is remote.
Baure is inside the dense Boni Forest where the national government has, since 2015, been undertaking a multi-agency security operation dubbed Linda Boni, which is aimed at flashing out Al-Shabaab militants.
Mr Macharia said a major security operation is ongoing in the area and urged Kenyans not to panic or be intimidated.
“I have no concrete information. I hear there was contact with the enemy forces in the morning. We are yet to get details due to a poor network. There could be deaths and injuries. There is no cause for alarm. We are still on top of things,” said Mr Macharia.
Police sources who talked to Nation.Africa said a KDF morning patrol party encountered a terrorist IED within Baure, resulting in the deaths of several soldiers and leaving others injured.
“Several troops lost their lives in the incident. The enemy is targeting mobile patrol assets,” said the police source.
The incident comes barely two weeks after two people were killed and one critically injured in Lamu, when the vehicle they were travelling in ran over an IED near the border with Somalia.
The incident happened on May 3 near Border Point 27, which is several kilometres past Ishakani Village in Lamu East.
On March 23, one person died when a water bowser headed to Usalama Camp, where the Kenya-Somalia border wall is being constructed, hit an IED suspected to have been planted by the militants.
The vehicle, which had a driver and a conductor, was ferrying water for the construction of the border security wall, when the incident occurred at around 7.30am.
In January 2016, five Police officers were killed while three were injured when a Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) lorry hit an IED suspected along Hindi-Kiunga road in Lamu.
The officers were heading to Usalama Camp when the incident happened just a few kilometres from Milimani, which is inside the dense Boni forest.
On June 14, 2015, over 60 Al-Shabaab fighters ambushed KDF’s Baure camp near Bar’goni in Lamu at around 5.45am.
About 18 militants and two KDF officers were killed and an assortment of weapons, including a video camera, found.
