He added that: "KDF assures the public that tracking of the terrorists will continue until the area is free from all security threats posed by this group.”

The KDF spokesman said that soldiers who had been tracking the terrorists laid an ambush at Bodhei.

The terrorists killed were part of a group that has been terrorizing residents.

The group carjacked, in broad daylight, Public Works Principal Secretary Mariam El Maawy at Milihoi in Lamu before she was rescued by the military and later died of her injuries at a South African hospital.

MILITANTS

The soldiers are part of Operation Linda Boni, a multi-agency security force in the forest.

It was launched on September 2015 to flush out Jayshi Ayman, a local group of Somalia-based Al-Shabaab.

The Kenyan group has aliases including Jeysh Ayman Majmo Ayman and Jeshi la Ayman.

Its founder is Abdifatah Abubakar Abdi aka Musa Muhajir, a Kenyan from Mombasa who was a known commander of Al-Shabaab.

Initially, his fighters were drawn from coastal communities and a few from north eastern region but the group now includes upcountry communities.

That changed and militants in the group included Europeans and Kenyans from upcountry communities.