Police said the militants attacked two police camps in the Fino area of Mandera County and lso, damaging communication towers as they terrorized area residents.

North Eastern regional Police Commissioner Mohamud Saleh told Anadolu Agency that the attackers first destroyed a tower to disable communication in the area.

“The attackers were targeting both the Kenyan police and the administration police [government paramilitary units] in the town of Fino,” he said.

Police told local media that the attackers numbered about 70 to 100 and were all traveling on foot.

Some police officers who sustained serious injuries during the attack have been airlifted to the capital Nairobi for special treatment.

Attacks in Mandera County are common due to the town’s geographical location, just a few kilometers from the porous Kenya-Somali border.

The killing comes on the heels of a Feb. 16 al-Shabaab attack on a school close to the town of Mandera, killing three teachers and causing a mass exodus of teachers from the area.

Al-Shabaab has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya, calling for the East African nation to withdraw its troops from Somalia, where it is serving as part of an African Union force. Their bloodiest attack took place in April 2015, when they killed more than 140 students from Garissa University in northern Kenya.