Al-Shabab engages Kenyan police in Garissa County gunbattle

YUMBIS, Kenya, May 26 (UPI) -- Al-Shabab militants engaged in a gunbattle with Kenyan security forces near the village of Yumbis in Garissa County, where 148 students were massacred last month.

Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said one police officer was wounded in Monday night's attack and airlifted to a hospital, dismissing al-Shabab's claim and local reports stating that at least 20 officers were killed, according to BBC News.

Militant members took control of Yumbis briefly last week and warned residents not to work with the government.

Four police vehicles were set on fire by the militant Islamist group. Al-Shabab pledged allegiance to al-Qaida in 2012.

"We took all their weapons. There were some Kenyan forces that escaped in the course of the ambush fighting," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab of al-Shabab said, taking credit for the attack.

In April, 148 students were massacred by al-Shabab militants on a siege at Garissa University College.

Al-Shabab imposes strict Islamic law in the areas it controls within Somalia and frequently carries out attacks, including the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya in which at least 67 people were killed. Security in Mogadishu has improved since al-Shabab lost control of the capital in 2011.