Somali rebels kill at least 4 in attack on Kenyan police post near Somalia border

8/17/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan official says militants believed to be from the Somali extremist group al-Shabab have killed at least 4 police in an attack on a police post near the Somalia border.

Rashid Khattor, commissioner for Garissa county in Kenya’s north east, said today that about 40 armed extremists on Friday night raided a police post in Galmagalla village, a remote area that he said had poor communications infrastructure.

Somalia’s Islamic extremist network Al-Shabab claimed responsibility on Twitter, saying its fighters killed five police and seized dozens of weapons in the attack.

Al-Shabab has staged many attacks inside Kenya in retaliation for the Kenyan government’s decision in 2011 to send troops into Somalia to battle them. The Kenyan government sent troops there after several cross-border attacks and kidnappings of foreign tourists.