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Kenya launches manhunt for Al-Shabaab militants after attack at police station

Xinhua, April 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenya's security officers have launched a major manhunt for Al-Shabaab militants who attacked a police station in Wajir County in northeast region early Sunday.

Wajir East divisional police commander Benson Makumbi confirmed the attack on Diff Police Station in Wajir County near the border with Somalia and said the suspected militants escaped with one police vehicle and left three police officers injured.

Makumbi said the incident which took place at about 3 a.m. when about 100 gunmen struck the police station and also burnt part of the structures that were at the station and a small town before escaping.

"We are doing investigations to establish if there is anyone missing after the attack," he said, noting that the police officers engaged the insurgents for a few hours before the gunmen grabbed one of the cars that was at the station and drove off with casualties.

"We had three injuries that are not serious," said one of the officers at the police station which is near the Kenya-Somalia border.

Sources said the station usually has 24 officers but 18 were present at the time of the attack which left many of the attackers injured and were loaded into the landcruiser before they escaped.

Makumbi said police officers and the military have been deployed to pursue the attackers who are linked to the militant group.

Wajir County had enjoyed relative calm for the past four years until the early Sunday incident.

The government administrator warned that they will not allow criminals to disrupt peace and tranquility which was returning to the remote town after attacks witnessed in 2013.

Northern Kenya has borne the brunt of grenade and gun attacks in the last four years since Kenya took its troops to Somalia to fight the Al-Shabaab militia group in October 2011.

Several attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northeaster Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them. Enditem