A joint security operation in Kenya has killed over 12 of 30 Al-Shabaab militants during a raid conducted in Sedahgose, Garissa County, over the weekend.
A security source revealed that one Al-Shabaab militant was also captured during the operation.
According to the source, security personnel further recovered various weapons from the AL-Shabaab camp, including one IED bomb, one PKM machine gun, and one AK-47 rifle. It is also reported that some militants who survived the raid with severe injuries have escaped to Somalia.
The coordinated operation was conducted just a week after the Al-Shabaab militants had killed four engineers near a regional development project in Kenya’s Northeast.
Security officials say the operation targeted an al-Shabab hideout in Kenya’s Garissa County, the scene of many al-Shabaab attacks in the past.
“The operation was an intelligence led and we are saying we will sustain the operation to get rid of these al-Shabab elements, who have become a menace,” Thomas Bett, Deputy County Commissioner said.
“As a government we continue asking the people to share any crucial information, let them have confidence in the government, and that the government is going to protect them under whatever means,” he said.
Somalia-based al-Shabab has been active in Kenya since 2011, when Kenya first contributed troops to the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
The Islamist militant group killed nearly 150 people at Garissa University College in 2015.