Al-Shabaab claims 4 soldiers killed in friday’s attack on Mandera Governor’s Motorcade

 

 

 

Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying Mandera governor Ali Roba on Friday, leaving him unharmed but wounding several people close to the spot where Al Shabaab launched a string of deadly attacks last year, the army said.
Al Shabaab said its fighters crossed into Kenya and killed four soldiers in an attack on a military convoy on Friday morning, without mentioning the governor.
“We killed four Kenyan soldiers. We burnt two military trucks and we also took one car from them,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman told Reuters.
Al Shabaab has vowed revenge attacks against Kenya after it sent troops into Somalia where they are battling the al Qaeda-linked group as part of an African Union peacekeeping force.
Musab said the convoy travelling between Mandera and Wajir, two northeastern Kenyan towns close to the porous border with Somalia.
Kenya’s military said its forces had not been ambushed.
“There was no attack (on a Kenya Defence Forces convoy), but there was an attack on the convoy of the governor of Mandera,” said David Obonyo, the Kenya Defence Force spokesman.
The attack left several people wounded and one vehicle was hijacked but the governor was safe, according to county officials.
Roba has been urging the central government to improve security in the crime-ridden region awash with bandits and gunmen. Another convoy carrying him was attacked by an improvised explosive device in 2014.
Roba did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Source: the-star.co.ke