Two children and their unborn sibling have been killed in a Kenyan police operation aimed at detaining their father, a human rights group said Saturday. Police, who called the man a suspected Islamic extremist with an al-Qaida linked group, confirmed the children’s deaths and asserted they were used as “human shields.”
A police report seen by The Associated Press said an elite unit went to the house of Mohamed Mapenzi in Kibundani area of coastal Kwale County in search of firearms Friday night.
The report said the unit had been directed there by another suspected member of al-Shabab, based in neighboring Somalia.
Al-Shabab has been carrying out attacks inside Kenya since 2011 in retaliation for Kenya’s troop presence in Somalia. The report says officers ordered the suspect to open his house but he refused.
