Al-Shabaab fighters have beheaded three people and torched houses in dawn attack on Maleli Village of Witu in Lamu.
Although residents had put the number of those killed at four, area County Commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo told the media that the report he had received indicated three.
The gunmen reportedly struck at around 12.30am Friday as the villagers slept.
They targeted men as they spared women and children, before disappearing into the bushes as has been their tactic in past attacks.
The government believes the militants have set up hideouts in the expansive and dense Boni Forest and a multi-agency operation is ongoing to flush them out.
Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based rag-tag militia linked to Al-Qaeda terror network, has been attacking villages and ambushing travellers in the coastal county for months now.
