Gunmen kill one in attack on lorry in Lamu county

December 17, 2015 8:07 AM

"We can't be sure who exactly the attackers were for now, but the incident has similarity to an al Shabaab attack," he said.

Gunmen kill one in attack on lorry in Lamu county

Unidentified gunmen attacked a lorry in northern Kenya's Lamu County on Wednesday and killed one person, and a police vehicle on patrol in the area went missing, a senior police official said.

Francis Wanjohi, regional police commander, said the attack took place at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) in Mkunumbi, near Mpeketoni, the scene of Islamist attacks last year.

"A lorry travelling from Mombasa to Lamu was attacked ... and one of its occupants was shot dead," Wanjohi told Reuters by phone.

"There was a police vehicle on patrol in the area and it cannot be traced for now, but military officers are combing nearby forests for it and the officers who were on board."

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents have in the past claimed responsibility for attacks in the region.

In June 2014, the group killed 65 people over a 24-hour period in the Mpeketoni area. It was also responsible for a raid on Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 that killed 67.

In al Shabaab's worst attack in Kenya, its gunmen killed 148 people at a university in April.

Wanjohi said the Wednesday attack happened near a paramilitary police camp.

In November, the government said security forces destroyed five camps used by suspected al Shabaab militants in a sweep of a forest on the north coast.

Al Shabaab seeks to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law. It has frequently attacked neighbouring Kenya in recent years, saying it is retaliating for Kenya's participation in an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.