Two suspected al Shabaab militants were Tuesday morning killed in an ambush that foiled a planned attack on Kenyans using Alungu-Elwak road, Mandera County.
Acting on credible intelligence, the elite Special Operations Group launched a pre-dawn operation on the militants who were planning to terrorise the road users.
The terrorists were also on the final stages of placing explosives on the main road targeting civilian vehicles, police said.
The suspected terrorists were caught in the act of setting up an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
A fierce firefight ensued, during which two militants were killed and others sustained serious injuries before fleeing into nearby thickets.
Recovered items include two AK-47 rifles, a Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) warhead, and a fully assembled IED, averting a potential large-scale attack on civilian traffic.
This successful operation highlights the continued commitment and vigilance of Kenya’s security forces in the fight against terrorism, police said.
Police said they are pursuing the other gang members who escaped the ambush.
The area has in the past been experiencing attacks by the terror group.
The gang crosses from Somalia through the porous border before launching attacks that have crippled operations in much of urban areas in the region.
Kenya has reacted by among others deploying more personnel and deploying technology in the area to tame the threat and attacks.
Local sympathizers have been blamed for the attacks in the region which have always targeted security personnel and civil servants including teachers.
Kenya launched Operation Linda Nchi on October 14, 2011, after gunmen seized tourists at the Coast which the Government saw as a threat to the country’s sovereignty as it targeted the nation’s economic lifeline-Tourism.
Kenya’s incursion into southern Somalia started after the kidnapping of two Spanish women, who were working for MSF at the Dadaab refugee camp.
The abductions were carried out by the militants who the troops said planned to push away under the Operation Linda Nchi.
Two years later, the troops managed to take control of Kismayo port under Operation Sledge Hammer.
The troops have liberated many regions near Kenyan porous border.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of President Siad Barre’s military regime, which ushered in more than two decades of anarchy and conflict in a country deeply divided along clan lines.
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