Six suspected Somali pirates have been killed in a gun battle with the Kenyan navy.
The men died in a firefight with a patrol boat at Kiunga in Lamu.
Three naval officers were also injured in the incident close to the Somali border.
The navy team was patrolling its waters on Monday when it spotted a docked speedboat less than 100 metres from the shoreline.
The gunmen, who were ashore, fired at the soldiers as they tried to board their vessel and flee.
“But the officers swiftly fired back and managed to kill six while others escaped with serious injuries,” sources within the Kenyan department of defence told the Daily Nation newspaper.
The navy patrol boat was hit by a rocket propelled grenade that did not explode, but the impact broke the captain’s arm, while a corporal suffered a fractured spine.
The Kenyan army was called in to follow a trail of blood into a nearby forest in Somalia, but the mission was later called off.
[mappress] Source: InterManager, October 20, 2011