Kenyan police officers killed in attack claimed by Al-Shabab

Several Kenyan police officers were killed in an attack Monday night in the northeastern Garissa county, where 148 students were massacred last month, police said Tuesday. Al-Shabab claimed credit for the attack.

The  group also burnt five vehicles in the two incidents, said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab of Al-Shabab.

"We took all their weapons. There were some Kenyan forces that escaped in the course of the ambush fighting," he said

A police spokesman, George Kimoti, confirmed there was an attack in the Garissa region, and two security officials said many police officers had been killed in an al-Shabab ambush but could not give an exact death toll. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reported that at least 20 police officers were feared dead in the attack in Yumbis village.

The victims — who were on their way to rescue another team of officers wounded in an attack earlier on Monday — were moving in a convoy of four vehicles that the militants then burned. In the earlier attack, three police officers patrolling between Garissa and the Dadaab refugee camp had been injured when their vehicle ran over a land mine, the officials said. 

An official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity that at least five police officers were missing and four vehicles had been torched.

The same area was in the news last week after suspected Al-Shabab fighters raided mosques and started to preach to congregations of Muslims. The Al-Shabab force reportedly hoisted flags before the security forces arrived. Kenya's interior ministry said Friday it had "thwarted an attempted attack" on Thursday evening after Yumbis residents spotted armed militants in the area and alerted the authorities.

Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Kenya in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia, where Kenyan troops are part of an African Union force bolstering the Western-backed central government in Mogadishu.

Despite major setbacks in 2014, Al-Shabab continues to wage an insurgency against Somalia's government and remains a threat in the East African region.

The group claimed responsibility for a deadly assault last month on a college in Garissa town, as well as a 2013 assault on an upscale mall in the capital, Nairobi, in which at least 67 people were killed.

Kenyan officials are reportedly pondering the construction of a wall along the border with Somalia as part of the government's efforts to stem the attacks.

Al Jazeera with wire services