Kenya Says 11 Suspected Al‑Shabaab Fighters Killed in Border Operation
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan security forces say they killed at least 11 suspected Al‑Shabaab militants in an intelligence-driven raid near the Somalia border on Sunday, according to police.
Backed by aerial units, the elite Special Operations Group moved on a makeshift encampment in Mandera County after receiving reports that roughly 30 suspected fighters had assembled there to plot attacks on nearby border villages, security officials said.
Police reported 11 suspects were killed and seven others sustained serious injuries, while the remaining militants fled into Somalia.
Officers at the scene recovered three PKM machine guns, about 409 rounds of ammunition, and several documents believed to be tied to Al‑Shabaab. Among them were what authorities described as receipts for compulsory religious taxes allegedly levied by the group.
Officials said the paperwork could yield insights into Al‑Shabaab’s funding streams and the way it governs territory through taxation and checkpoint collections.
Police said the operation aimed to derail the alleged plot before it was executed and to head off another cross‑border strike in Kenya’s northeast.
The raid forms part of a stepped‑up campaign by Kenyan agencies against militant networks along the porous Kenya‑Somalia frontier, where authorities have leaned on intelligence‑led tactics to blunt attacks.
It also followed the arrest days earlier of a suspect at the Kina Vehicle Checkpoint in Isiolo County, whom police believe is linked to an illicit firearms and ammunition trafficking ring operating across Tana River, Isiolo, Meru, and Garissa counties.
Al‑Shabaab, the al‑Qaida‑aligned group based in Somalia, has staged numerous attacks in Kenya over the past decade, particularly near the shared border. The group has not publicly addressed Sunday’s raid, and the reported toll could not be independently verified.
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