LAMU (SD) – At least four Kenyan General Service Unit (GSU) officers have been killed and several others wounded in an ambush suspected to have staged by al-Shabaab fighters in the country’s coastal region.

GSU is a paramilitary wing in the Kenya Police Service which controls rioters’ mobs and civil disturbance.

Al-Shabaab fighters had reportedly ambushed the vehicle the officers were travelling in, in an area between Mkunumbi and Hindi of Lamu county.

A senior police officer in Lamu, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the vehicle was on patrol when it was “hit directly” by a rocket-propelled grenade.

There has not yet been any claim of responsibility for the attack.

But the Lamu region, which includes the popular tourist beach destination of Lamu Island, lies close to the Somali frontier and has suffered frequent attacks, often carried out with roadside bombs.

The attack took place in Lamu County, where the government deployed security forces and declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew after the murder of seven civilians in a series of raids earlier this week.

“We had an incident today morning and we have lost four police officers. Their vehicle was hit and caught fire,” said Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia.