At least 15 al-Shabaab terrorists killed by their own bomb in Kenya

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – At least 15 members of the al-Shabaab terrorist group were killed over the weekend in Kenya when their vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device (IED), police said Monday.

Other militants from the group had earlier planted the explosive device in Lamu County near the border with Somalia.

Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) spokesperson Esther Wanjiku confirmed the incident to local media, noting that it happened Sunday morning between Sarira and Ras Kiamboni near Ishakani.

Al-Shabaab terrorists have long carried out IED attacks in Kenya targeting security officers patrolling key routes on the porous Kenya-Somali border.

In 2018, more than 100 Kenyan police were killed in separate IED attacks along the border.

The Kenyan army said in January that the country is focused on ensuring the survivability of its troops deployed in the fight against al-Shabaab militants, hence the need to procure 118 high-performance armored personnel carriers (APCs) from Turkey.

The Turkish manufactured vehicles are to protect Kenyan troops from Vehicle-Borne IEDs (VBIEDs), IEDs and directional explosives.