Police recover IEDs, rifles and grenades from suspected al-Shabab militants
Police Officers have recovered warfare equipments at a makeshift camp in Garissa County which shares a long porous border with Somalia.
In the operation conducted on Monday, members of the National Police Service with the support of Kenya Police Reservists recovered the equipment including two RPGs with seven warheads, six AK47 rifles with 20 magazines and one PKM machine gun with a belt of 200 rounds.
RECOVERY OF WARFARE EQUIPMENT IN GARISSA.
— National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) May 23, 2023
On 22 May 2023, at around 1100hrs while along Diiso, Biamthow SOG Officers on patrol found fresh foot prints at Billow Dam and after tracking the footprints for about 2.7 kms, where they came across a makeshift camp with about 10 pic.twitter.com/xdzd1JnkHQ
Police have also nabbed two hand grenades, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) materials, a food cache, a cellphone and memory cards during the operation.
“This took place after patrol officers found fresh footprints at Billow Dam at around 1100 hours and tracked them for about 2.7 km,” said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The camp in Alango village was to be used by the Somalia based al Shabaab militants to launch attacks in the County.
NPS said there were some 10 suspected al Shabaab militants who engaged the officers in a shootout.
The militants managed to escape, however, police spokesperson Dr Resla Onyango said the operation is ongoing and efforts to arrest them are underway.
This comes in the wake of reports the terror gang has been sending its members to Kenya in the past month in readiness for an attack.
Police say they have upped their operations in the area to tame the plans for the attacks.
“This is a good recovery coming at a time when we are facing threats by the terrorists. The operation is ongoing,” Resla said.