Kenyan police said on Friday Al-Shabab militants destroyed a telecommunications mast in Elele area, Mandera County, along the Somalia border.
The militants used bombs to bring down the only mast in the area, affecting communication, Northeastern regional police commander Rono Bunei said.
“Communication has been cut in the area after the destruction of the mast. We are pursuing the matter,” he said on the phone.
There were casualties in the attack on the Safaricom mast, Bunei said.
The attackers escaped soon after the dawn assault, he said.
Al-Shabab militants usually destroy telecom masts to disrupt police response and communication in the area before they could inflict harm on the locals.
The extremists, believed to have crossed from Somalia, have also been targeting schools and residential houses rented by communities that are not native to the volatile northeastern Kenyan counties of Garissa, Mandera and Wajir.
The attack comes four days after newly built police offices and houses were destroyed in an Al-Shabab explosion at Borehole 11 area of Mandera South constituency, Mandera County.
Several security officers and scores of civilians have been killed, many maimed and property worth millions were destroyed in northeast region since the Kenyan soldiers entered Somalia in 2011 in a bid to forestall dangers facing from threats of Al-Qaida-linked Somali Islamist group. Al-Shabab militants have stepped up attacks in Kenyan counties bordering Somalia.
