End of the road for militiamen in Ijara town attack as KDF kill 5

Kenya Defence Forces soldiers  at a past operation in Somalia. They are still pursuing terrorists who attacked Ijara town on Saturday December 30, 2017 [George Mulala| Standard]

Kenya Defence Forces killed five suspected Al-Shabaab militants believed to behind the savage attack of Ijara police station in Garissa County.

On the dawn of Saturday Decemeber 30, 2017 the militants set fire on a police station in Ijara, stealing a police Land Cruiser before leaving in a spate of destruction in the town.

In a statement, KDF spokesman Colonel David Obonyo said soldiers had been trailing the Somali-based militia who vandalised a Safaricom telephone mast in the town.

“The troops caught up with the terrorists as they tried to get to the Somali border. In the ensuing firefight, suspected bomb-making materials that were being ferried in the stolen Land Cruiser exploded destroying the vehicle,” said Obonyo.

The security officers recovered a motorcycle suspected to have been stolen in Ijara, five AK-47 rifles, thirteen magazines with 370 rounds of ammunition, 2 grenades, bomb making materials and a host of personal items.

“KDF is still in pursuit of the militants and appeals to the public for any information regarding suspicious people with bullet wounds seeking assistance,” added Obonyo.

On Thursday December 28, 2017 KDF and US  forces launched airstrikes against the militants in Somalia killing nineteen.

The operation was conducted at Bohadi, between Busar and Burahache in Gedo region when the outlawed group was planning to attack a contingent of soldier traveling from Busar to Elwak.

Al-Shabaab has been blamed for the horrid truck bombing in Mogadishu in October 2017 that killed 512 people.

KDF went to Somalia in October 2011after the kidnapping of two Spanish women working for Doctors without Borders at the Dadaab refugee camp.

The abductions were carried out by the militants who Kenya's troops are fighting under Operation Linda Nchi mission. Two years after the operation began, the troops managed to take control of Kismayo port under Operation Sledge Hammer.

Initially a team of about 2,000 troops had been engaged but the number doubled when Kenya joined UN's AMISOM. The Kenyan military says there is no set exit date for the operation, and that the mission's success would be the crippling of Al-Shabaab's capacity.