Kenyan security forces have killed 10 suspected al-Shabaab Islamist militants and arrested 36 others in nine months since launching an anti-terrorism operation in the country’s coastal region, the head of the operation said on Friday.
Somalia-based al-Shabaab have claimed a series of attacks in the East African country in the past three years that killed hundreds of people.
Several raids targeted coastal sites, and Kenyan security officers say the raids have been launched from hideouts in the Boni forest.
James Ole Serian, head of the joint army and police operation, said troops had swept the forest and destroyed hideouts used by the militants, who say they target Kenya for sending troops into Somalia with an African force fighting al Shabaab there.
“We are having a permanent base set up within the forest that will be used by both our military and police to ensure continuous security,” Reuters reports Ole Serian as saying, adding that “around 10” suspected militants who refused to surrender had been killed.
In 2014, about 100 people were killed by al Shabaab militants in the Mpeketoni area of Lamu County, next to Boni forest.
