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Suspected al-Shabab Attack Kills Official in Kenya's North

by Associated Press

   NAIROBI, KENYA --

   Gunmen suspected to be al-Shabab Islamic extremists killed an
   administrative chief in an attack in Kenya's north that left two police
   reservists missing, an official said Tuesday.

   The attack took place in Omar Jillo in Mandera county on Monday night,
   Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh said. The county borders Somalia,
   where al-Shabab is based. Omar Jillo is among several towns in the area
   under dusk-to-dawn curfew over insecurity caused by the al-Qaida-linked
   extremists.
   A police report seen by The Associated Press says four unknown men
   believed to be al-Shabab members broke into the compound of
   administrative chief Dekow Abbey Sirat and interrogated him before they
   shot him dead.
   Mandera has been hardest hit in recent years by an al-Shabab campaign
   to avenge Kenyan troop presence in Somalia since 2011. Kenya's troops
   are part of the African Union force in Somalia helping the fragile
   central government counter al-Shabab's insurgency.
   On Friday, suspected al-Shabab extremists killed two quarry workers in
   Mandera. It was the third attack on quarry workers, the majority of
   whom are not Muslim, in the county since 2014.
   Separately on Tuesday, an improvised explosive device that officials
   said was planted by al-Shabab to target a police car instead struck a
   Toyota Land Cruiser near the Somalia border. A senior police official,
   who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
   give media the information, said all four occupants of the vehicle were
   killed, including a child, in the attack near Liboi town.
   Kenya has managed to stop the frequency of al-Shabab attacks in its
   capital, Nairobi, and major towns, but human rights groups say the
   government uses methods such as extrajudicial killings that can fuel
   revenge attacks.