UPDATE Al Shabaab attack Kenyan police camp, kill 7
Kenyan Police
Gunmen have killed at least five people including three Kenyan police officers in one of the heaviest attack at police camp in north-eastern border region with Somalia, police say.
The Wednesday night attack targeting an Administration Police (AP) Camp in Gerile settlement, Wajir South district, 100 km from Wajir town also killed a local immigration official and a civilian, police said.
Three other officers are nursing wounds and 14 others are missing following the attack that saw the militants escape with a vehicle and weapons from the camp, The Standard reports.
Police say local district registrar of persons, District Officer, Chief and intelligence officers are missing and are yet to be traced after the incident.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe confirmed the attack but said he had not yet “received the full details.”
Senior police officers led by North Eastern Police boss Leo Nyongesa and the area Provincial Commissioner, James Ole Serian flew to the area on Thursday as other senior officers held a crisis meeting in Nairobi, added The Standard.
Locals have reportedly said that the attack caught the officers at the Gerile AP camp in Wajir South by surprise as they had retreated to their tents when it happened.
The officers had been supervising a registration exercise in the area for the better part of the day before they were attacked.
Witnesses said gunmen who crossed from Somalia numbering about 40 drove in five vehicles surrounded the camp before they attacked it with bombs and bullets, according to The Standard.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack. But Kenyan officials have blamed Somali militants for previous attacks.
There have been several attacks on police camps in the three months since Nairobi sent troops into Somalia to fight the Al-Shabaab group.
Gunmen killed three Kenyan police and wounded two others in the latest of a string of attacks in the northeastern border region with war-torn Somalia, police said Thursday.
Hand grenades have been thrown into bars and a church, while homemade explosive devices have been set off, many targeting security forces.
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