Police officer, two militants killed in Kenya, says security official

A police reservist and two armed attackers were killed in a gunfight on Sunday in Kenya’s northeast Mandera county near the border with Somalia, a security official said.

“They were killed during a shoot out,” security official Jeremiah Kosoim told Reuters, adding that a young boy was also injured during the gunfight that erupted when militants were trying to destroy a telecommunications mast in the area.

He did not give further details about the attackers, but Somalia’s group al Shabaab have often targeted security forces and strategic sites, such as telecommunications masts, in the area.

Al Shabaab has said it wants to put pressure on the Kenyan authorities to withdraw its troops from Somalia, where they are part of an African Union-mandated peacekeeping force.

The Islamist group is fighting to topple the federal government in Somalia, which has been mired in conflict for almost three decades.