The battle between suspected Al-Shabaab
fighters and police in Pandanguo, Lamu County, lasted more than seven
hours, Inspector-General Joseph Boinnet has said.
The fighting that began at 5.30am was still raging by 1.30pm, Mr Boinnet told journalists in Nairobi.
MISSING
He spoke after chairing a meeting of senior police commanders and other security agencies involved in the upcoming elections.
Two
police officers were killed and seven others went missing in the fierce
fighting, according to a senior government
administrator.
Linda
Boni Operation Director James Ole Seriani separately said enough
security officers had been deployed to Pandanguo Village to hunt down
the fighters.
Mr Seriani said the attackers attempted to
torch Pandanguo Police Post but met fierce fire from police who were
present in the area.
The officers are
part of the inter-agency Operation Linda Boni aimed at ridding the
expansive Boni Forest of the Somalia-based rag-tag militia.
The
fighters are believed to camp, train, organise and coordinate their
attacks from the dense forest that straddles the Kenya-Somalia border.
BUSHES
Mr
Seriani said the situation was under control since security agents —
including the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), Kenya Police, Administration
Police and other units — had been deployed to pursue the attackers.
He dismissed reports that some villagers in Pandanguo had been taken hostage by the suspected terrorists.
He, however, confirmed that the missing are villagers who fled after the attackers invaded the village.
“I
received reports that villagers fled and hid in the thick bushes but we
expect them to come back once the situation is calm,” he said.
“We are alert and we are calling for vigilance. I will give more information once we are over with the crackdown.”
This is not the first time that Pandanguo Village is being attacked by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.
LOOTING
On July 14, 2014, a classroom was burnt down by the suspected terrorists.
They also took with them drugs from the Pandanguo Dispensary before vandalising it.
The attackers later harvested maize on a two-acre farm in Pandanguo before vanishing into the dense Boni Forest.
The
Wednesday incident comes just a week after four police officers and
four pupils were killed when a police lorry they were travelling in ran
over a home-made bomb suspected to have been planted by Al-Shabaab at
Mararani area.
IEDs
On
May 31 this year, seven Administration Police officers from the Mangai
Rapid Border Patrol Unit, two Kenya Defence Forces soldiers and a
civilian were killed when their armoured vehicle ran over an improvised
explosive suspected to have been planted by Al-Shabaab.
The
incident also comes at a time when the national government is
undertaking Operation Linda Boni, whose major aim is to flush out
Al-Shabaab terrorists from the forest.
The operation was launched on September 15, 2015 by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery.
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