Kenya police kill suspected Islamist at Somali border

GARISSA, Kenya, June 19 (Reuters) Kenyan security forces killed a man on the border with Somalia today where two Kenyan policemen believed to have been kidnapped by Islamist fighters were found murdered, witnesses said.

Regional police commander Anthony Kibuchi confirmed there had been a shootout between Kenyan police and Somali militia at the border town of Bella Hawa.

''There was contact this morning between our officers and Somali militia. They shot at our officers and our officers had to reply,'' Kibuchi told Reuters.

However, he did not confirm a man had been killed, saying he was on his way to the scene.

Witnesses said police shot the 20-year-old man after he defied orders to stop, as he was crossing into Somalia with a donkey cart laden with food and household items.

''Armed relatives of the deceased rushed to the scene and exchanged gunfire with Kenyan forces for 15 minutes. Two people were wounded,'' resident Hassan Arab said.

The bodies of the two Kenyan policemen were found on Sunday.

The local authorities believe they had been kidnapped by Islamist fighters along the remote frontier, where tensions are running high over the arrest of scores of suspected Somali Islamists trying to enter Kenya after they were routed from Mogadishu in January by allied Somali-Ethiopian troops.

Leaders of Somalia's former Islamist movement see Kenya as an enemy after it detained members trying to cross the border, sending scores into the custody of the Somali interim government and its Ethiopian allies.

Reuters PY DB2204