Al-Shabaab attacks police station in Kenya, Destroys Communication mast

[Deeq A.]

Suspected Al-Shabaab militants destroyed a communication mast in Khorof Harar area in Wajir county of northeast Kenya on Friday night, police confirmed on Saturday.

Wajir police boss Thomas Ngeywa confirmed the incident in Khorof Kharar, where the suspected al-Shabab militants also targeted a police camp at 2:00 a.m. in an attack that was executed simultaneously.

“I can confirm that suspected members of al-Shabab militants conducted an attack in Khorof Harar police camp, destroyed a communication mast belonging to Safaricom early Saturday morning,” Ngeywa told reporters in Wajir town.

A police report also said heavy attack from the militants forced the police officers at the camp at the time of the attack to seek refuge in the nearby bushes after they were overpowered.

In a statement posted on Alshabab’s affiliated media online sites, the group said it destroyed a communication mast and inflicted heavy casualties on the Kenyan forces at the camp.

The latest incident came after earlier intelligence reports suggested that the militants were planning to carry out attacks in the region.

Al-Shabaab militants have in the recent past attacked communication masts in bid to cut police from immediate response.

Northeastern Kenya has suffered grenade and gun attacks in recent years since Kenya took its troops to Somalia to fight the al-Shabaab militia group in October 2011.

Several attacks believed to have been carried out by al-Shabaab militants have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northeastern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.