Kenya police arrests 3 men attempting to breach British army camp

Kenyan police say they have arrested three men who tried to force their way into a British Army training camp on the same day that al-Shabab extremists attacked a military base and killed three U.S. military personnel.

The internal police report seen by The Associated Press says the three “terrorist suspects” were arrested Sunday after trying to enter the British Army Training Unit in Laikipia county. It occurred around the same time as the al-Shabab assault on the base in Lamu county.

The British government was not immediately available for comment. The U.S. Africa Command told the AP on Monday that five U.S. aircraft were destroyed and one damaged in Al-Shabab’s hours-long assault at the Manda Bay Airfield. The aircraft were a combination of fixed-wing and rotary, it said.

It was the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab’s first attack against U.S. forces inside Kenya, where the extremists have carried out multiple deadly attacks against civilian targets including buses, schools and shopping malls.

U.S. Africa Command said it would not comment on questions about any changes to its presence or security measures. The airfield is adjacent to Camp Simba, a key Kenyan military base used by U.S. counterterror forces.

No Kenyans died in the attack, Kenya’s military spokesman Paul Njuguna said Monday. Al-Shabab has vowed retribution on Kenya for its troop presence in neighboring Somalia to counter the extremist group.

AP