NAIROBI (Halbeeg News) – Kenya security agencies have foiled another attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants on a Chinese-owned construction company in an eastern region.
The assailants wounded four people while they attempted to hit the site in Garissa County, not far from the Kenyan-Somali border, owned by a Chinese road construction company that is building the Garissa-Modogashe highway.
According to locals who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, the hooded assailants all armed with AK-47 rifles kidnapped a man from a nearby village and ordered him to take them to the Chinese construction site in Shimbirey, about 50km from Garissa town.
“The attackers were repulsed since the security officers were very alert. There was exchange of fire before the attackers escaped,” county police commander David Kerina told Reuters by phone, adding that the injured person was a watchman’s wife.
“I believe the attackers, who were armed, might be Somali militants. They fled, but we have intensified security operations. So far no arrest has been made.”
He said during the shootout the wife to one of the guards manning the gate was shot from behind.
She was rushed to the Garissa County Referral hospital where she is admitted.
Mr Kerina said her condition was stable. The woman’s husband is among the other three who were injured.
“Traces of blood as they escaped on foot indicate that quite a number of them sustained serious bullet injuries and we are right on their heels,” Mr Kerina added.
This comes in the backdrop of a heightened security operation in the country to flush out members of Al-Shabaab group.
On Saturday, authorities arrested two gunmen after they were tricked into a police station by a taxi driver in Garissa County.
Upon searching, police recovered a cache of weapons and ammunition. They were later found to have aided in the Riverside attack that left 21 people dea
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