Kenya police kill 4 suspected extremists at Somali border

NAIROBI, Kenya: A Kenyan official says police officers killed four suspected extremists at the Somali border, a region hard-hit by recent attacks by the Somali extremist group Al Shabab.

North Eastern Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh said Sunday that police killed the men while ambushing a group of about 20 suspected members of a cell of Al Shabab militants on Saturday.

Saleh says the group allegedly was planning an attack on a police station. He says police recovered four rifles and Somali army military jackets.

Al Shabab, the Al Qaida affiliate in East Africa, has vowed retribution on Kenya for its troop presence in Somalia.

Kenya deployed troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabab, which is waging an insurgency against Somalia’s weak UN-backed government threatening instability in the region.

— AP