Kenyan security forces killed ten fighters from Somalia’s Al Shabaab group in eastern Kenya on Thursday, a government official said.
After fighting militants in the village of Galmagalla in Garissa county on Wednesday, they recovered rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices, according to Thomas Bett, deputy county commissioner of the Bura East sub-county.
“The operation to flush out the Somalia militants’ group in the region was carried out by our multi-agency team … and (they) managed to neutralise 10 Islamist group militants and recovered assault weapons,” he told Reuters.
For years, Al Shabaab has attacked Kenyan targets in order to pressure the country into withdrawing its troops from the African Union-mandated peacekeeping mission assisting Somalia’s central government in combating the group.
In northeast and eastern Kenya, the group have targeted security forces, schools, automobiles, towns, and telecoms equipment, however the frequency and intensity of their attacks have decreased in recent years.
For more than a decade, Al Shabaab has been battling to destabilise Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
Last week, the gang killed four highway workers in Kenya when their car collided with an improvised device on a route in Garissa county. On Tuesday, one person was killed when a convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the same area, according to authorities.