Saturday October 19, 2019
Al-Shabaab militants in a past operation. [Photo/AFP]
Anti-terror police have identified an Al-Shabaab operative who is said to have commanded planting of an IED that killed 11 GSU officers in Dadaab constituency.
Abdullahi Banati, an Al-Shabaab operative between Kenya and Somalia border, is said to have been coordinating attacks along the border.
The GSU officers who were in regular patrol died on spot in one of the most recent worst attack by the Al-Shabaab against Kenyan security forces.
“Police have traced the activities of Banati and his team of militants to the border and it is suspected that he escaped to Somalia with the rest of the operatives,” the source said in a report.
Officers who have been trailing Banati say he planned to attack the officers from Har Har GSU camp with the help of individuals operating within the Dadaab refugee camp.
Banati is reported to have joined Al-Shabaab in 2012 and was involved in the foiled attack on a Baure KDF camp in in June 2015.
11 Al-Shabaab militia were killed in the fierce gun-fire exchange that repulsed them.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday mourned the GSU officers. The state is expected to cater for their burial in coming weeks after completion of DNA tests.
“The President sends a strong reminder to all misguided elements out to compromise the safety and security of Kenyans across the country that the Government and the people of Kenya will never succumb to their cowardly terrorist actions,” read a statement by State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena