Suspected Somali Islamist militants killed five police officers in an ambush in northeastern Kenya on Tuesday, according to police sources, the latest in a string of deadly attacks.
Around 100 suspected insurgents stole the officers’ weapons and torched their vehicle during the attack in Alijize in Garissa county, according to a police official who asked not to be named. Two officers survived the ambush, although one was shot in the thigh.
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militants have claimed a series of cross-border attacks in recent months, including a spate of roadside bombings targeting security forces and a mass beheading of non-Muslim civilians in Kenya’s coastal Lamu district.
Al-Shabaab say the raids are retaliation for Kenyan security forces operating in Somalia, but Kenyan officials say Al-Shabaab launched raids and kidnappings on their territory long before Kenyan soldiers entered Somalia in 2011.
