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Larry Kieng

NAIROBI. — Two Kenyan police officers were killed yesterday by gunmen on a motorbike as they were guarding a church near the Indian Ocean, in an attack police believe could be the work of al-Shabaab militants.

“An investigation has been launched and we are not ruling out terrorism because this attack is not a normal robbery,” regional police chief Larry Kieng told journalists of the shooting in the town of Ukunda.

The area in the far south-east of the country has largely escaped the attacks waged by the Islamist al-Shabaab group in Kenya and neighbouring Somalia. Kieng said the assailants shot at the officers and grabbed their guns, killing one on the spot while the other died in hospital.

Since May, more than 20 police officers and a similar number of civilians have been killed in a resurgence of attacks in Kenya, including roadside bombings. — AFP.