Five Kenyan security officers have been killed in a Mandera IED attack blamed on suspected al-Shabaab militants operating near the border with Somalia.
The officers, four from the elite Special Operations Group and one National Police Reservist, died on Tuesday when their patrol vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, according to police accounts reported by The Star.
The blast happened in the El-Raamo area of Kutulo, along the Alungu Main Supply Route, near the Kenya-Somalia border, a stretch of road that has repeatedly come under threat from fighters crossing into Kenya from Somalia.
Gunfire followed the explosion. The explosion happened before the team came under attack from suspected al-Shabaab militants, which also left some of the security officers injured, police said, as reported by Kahawatungu.
Investigators believe the IED had allegedly been planted on July 21, with the militants lying in wait for a security patrol before launching the coordinated ambush. Militants are understood to have watched the route for several weeks, waiting for a patrol to pass before detonating the device and opening fire, according to police sources cited in local reporting.
The Special Operations Group is one of Kenya’s most experienced counter-terrorism units, and its officers are routinely deployed along the porous Mandera frontier to disrupt al-Shabaab movement and defuse explosives before they can be used against civilians. Tuesday’s Mandera IED attack nonetheless caught the patrol before the device could be located.
Families of the officers killed have not yet been publicly named, and the National Police Service is expected to issue a formal casualty statement once next of kin have been notified.
Security agencies have launched investigations into the incident as reinforcement teams were deployed to secure the area and pursue the attackers, Kahawatungu reported.
The Mandera IED attack is the latest in a string of assaults blamed on al-Shabaab in Kenya’s north eastern region in recent weeks. Just three days earlier, suspected militants attacked a Safaricom telecommunications mast located within a school compound in Dadaab, Garissa County, hitting at dawn and leaving teachers and residents shaken, according to The Star.
Earlier in July, Kenyan security forces reported killing 11 suspected Al-Shabaab militants during an intelligence-led operation in Mandera County as part of ongoing efforts to disrupt the group’s activities in the region.
Analysts at the Institute for Security Studies have described al-Shabaab as the group believed to be behind a wider run of attacks on security forces in Kenya’s north east, with improvised explosive devices increasingly the weapon of choice against patrol vehicles and supply routes.
Mandera County, which borders Somalia, has for years been a flashpoint for cross-border incursions targeting security personnel, telecommunications infrastructure and public transport, and Tuesday’s Mandera IED attack has renewed concern over the safety of officers deployed along the frontier.
Al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency from bases in Somalia since it was designated a terrorist organisation, and it has repeatedly vowed retaliation for Kenya’s continued military presence across the border.
Investigations into the Mandera IED attack are ongoing, and joint patrols involving the National Police Service and other security agencies remain active across the county as officers work to track down those responsible. No group had formally claimed responsibility for the attack at the time of publication.
