Gunmen from Somalia’s al Shabaab militant group burst into a government official’s house in north-east Kenya and shot him dead, police and the group said.
Four attackers in military fatigues killed Dekow Abbey Sirat in Mandera county, near Somalia’s border that has seen a string of al Shabaab raids in recent years. A number of his bodyguards also died in the attack, the militants said.
“We suspect the attackers are militants since after the raid they escaped towards Somalia,” Edward Mwamburi, head of the north-eastern regional police force, told Reuters.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said: “We killed the Kenyan official in Mandera county. He was our target. Some of his body guards also died and others were injured and we took their weapons.”
The militant group says it will continue to attack Kenya until Nairobi pulls troops from an African Union peacekeeping force inside Somalia.
