Kenyan police identify three suspected al-Shabab recruiters

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Kenyan police have released a report naming three men believed to be recruiters for Islamic terrorist group al-Shabab.

The report, titled "Tracing the Disappearing Kenyan Youth," indicates the men previously operated in Kenya, sending recruits to Somalia for training before they would return across the border to conduct attacks, according to the BBC.

The report adds the men -- Abdifatah Abubakar Ahmed, Ramadhan Hamisi Kufungwa, and Ahmed Iman Ali -- are currently in Somalia.

Police say Ahmed is an al-Shabab commander who helped plan the 2013 attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, which killed at least 67 people. Kufungwa and Ali, police say, are clerics who preached at mosques in Nairobi and Mombasa, recruiting prospects and appearing in propaganda videos.

The report also notes the Islamic State, which operates primarily out of Iraq and Syria but also has branches in North Africa, has become an attractive group to susceptible Kenyans.

Kenya in 2011 deployed military forces to Somalia to battle al-Shabab, which is affiliated with al-Qaida. Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for a multitude of attacks in Kenya's coastal and northeastern region, including in April when masked al-Shabab gunmen killed nearly 150 people at Garissa University College.

More recently, an al-Shabab assault on a village near the Somali border last month killed at least 14 people. The month prior, Kenya's armed forces said it killed at least 11 al-Shabab militants in a botched attack on a military base on the country's northern coast.