Tension is running high in Katulo town, Wajir, after a man was shot dead inside Kutulo AP Camp in the ongoing military operation against suspected Al-Shabaab members.
Witnesses told the Nation that 50-year-old Hassan Abdi Muhumed was felled after he was arrested together with dozens of other men in Kutulo town on Thursday morning.
IED ATTACK
The Nation could not immediately establish the reasons behind the shooting but sources indicated that fire was opened after some of the men protested their arrest and detention.
The operation comes days after Al-Shabaab killed eight police officers in an IED attack on Sunday.
Mr Issa Ahmed Abdi, the Wargadud Ward rep, said Mr Muhumed was a security guard at a local Kenya Power electricity station.
He added that the soldiers rounded up “all the men” from Kutulo town and were being held at the AP camp.
Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack in Bojigaras, claiming, in its usual propaganda, it killed 15 security officers and injured 23 others.
SITE Intelligence Group, an American firm that tracks online activity of white supremacists and jihadist organisations, said Al-Shabaab released a video of multiple attacks in Kenya on Monday for propaganda purposes to “honour slain fighters who include an unidentified Briton killed fighting alongside them.”
After the police Land Cruiser hit the IED on Sunday, the attackers who were hiding nearby ambushed the security officers.
PATROL
Among those who died in the fierce firefight that ensued were five Administration Police (AP) officers and three National Police Service reservists.
According to police reports, the slain officers who were based in Kutulo AP camp were on a routine patrol before their vehicle was blown up on Kutulo-Bojigaras road around 2.30 pm.
The militants are reported to have made way with eight assault rifles and hundreds of bullets belonging to the slain officers before fleeing towards the Somalia border.
Apart from the Sunday attack, the militant group has been blamed for various attacks in the Northeastern region, including the recent attack in Liboi earlier this month that left five officers dead.
Al-Shabaab fighters have also been blamed for the February attack at Qarsa that left three people dead, including two teachers.
The National Police had earlier issued an alert on a possible attack in Wajir, Garissa and Mandera County during the just-ended Ramadhan period.
Several leaders from the Northeastern have condemned the attack as they appealed for the change in tact in the fight against terror.