Al-Shabaab injure police in Kenya attack
May 26, 2015, 4:57 pm

Red Cross staff walk past the bodies of dozens of executed quarry workers near the Somali border. Separating Christians from Muslims and then executing them has been a modus operandi for the extremist group [Xinhua]

It was at Garissa University that Al-Shabaab militants killed 142 students and five security officers in early April.

Kenyan police have been on the hunt for the attackers since then and had closed in on Monday evening when they were ambushed.

Police sources that three police officers were injured and two in critical condition during a gun battle on Monday evening. Reinforcements sent in to relieve them were ambushed in the town of Gumbis in Garissa county, but according to police official Joseph Boinnet they managed to escape.

He also said that two Al-Shabaab fighters were killed, but provided no further details.

Several police vehicles had been set on fire and destroyed.

Al-Shabaab leaders based in Somalia have waged a war against the UN and African Union forces for the past several years. They blame these organizations for supporting what they say is an illegitimate government in the capital Mogadishu.

In the past year, Al-Shabaab has launched suicide bombing campaigns against Somali and foreign officials.

The extremist group has also targeted neighboring Kenya because of Nairobi’s support for the Mogadishu government, and its contribution to international forces there.

In mid-November, Al-Shabaab killed 28 people who were on a bus travelling from Mandera, a small town located along the border between Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

In July, Al-Shabaab fighters carried out an attack near the Kenyan town of Mpeketoni and killed up to 20 people. A day earlier, the extremist group killed at least 48 people at a holiday resort in the same region.

The BRICS POST with inputs from Agencies