Kenyan security forces killed at least 11 suspected Al-Shabaab militants on Sunday during an aerial-backed raid on a camp near the Somalia border, foiling what officials say was a planned assault on villages in Mandera County.
The elite Special Operations Group carried out the operation after intelligence indicated that around 30 suspected militants had gathered at a makeshift camp to plan the attack on border communities, security officials said. In addition to the 11 killed, seven others were seriously wounded. The remaining fighters fled across the border into Somalia.
Police said the raid was aimed at disrupting the planned assault before it could be launched and preventing another cross-border attack in Kenya’s volatile northeastern region.
Security forces recovered three PKM machine guns, roughly 409 rounds of ammunition, and several documents believed to belong to Al-Shabaab. Among the seized paperwork were what authorities described as receipts for mandatory religious taxes allegedly collected by the group. Officials said the records could offer valuable intelligence into how Al-Shabaab finances its operations and administers areas under its control through taxation and checkpoint collections.
The operation forms part of an intensified campaign by Kenyan security agencies targeting militant networks along the porous Kenya-Somalia border, where authorities have stepped up intelligence-led strikes to preempt attacks.
It comes just days after police arrested a suspect at the Kina Vehicle Checkpoint in Isiolo County believed to be linked to an illegal firearms and ammunition trafficking network spanning Tana River, Isiolo, Meru, and Garissa counties.
Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked militant group based in Somalia, has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya over the past decade, particularly in areas near the shared border. The group has not commented on Sunday’s operation, and the casualty figures could not be independently verified.
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