Deadly blast in Kenya claimed by Al Shabab

Three police officers were killed in eastern Kenya yesterday when their vehicle hit a landmine, a senior official said, in an attack claimed by Somali militant group Al Shabab.

The officers were part of a three-vehicle early morning patrol in the Somali border region when their truck hit the improvised explosive device (IED), North Eastern regional commissioner Mohammad Ali Saleh said.

“The police car ran over an IED and we have casualties. All the dead officers are from one work station,” Saleh said, without revealing the number of wounded officers.

“From past incidences, it is easy to see that even this one is the work of our enemy, the Al Shabab. They plant these IEDs to target our security people.”

Eight injured

The Kenyan Red Cross said on Twitter eight officers had been wounded.

“We are behind the attack in Liboi area. We destroyed the police car. Some died and others were injured,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabab’s military operation spokesman said. The Garissa county in which the incident happened has suffered several attacks linked to Al Shabab in the last few years, including a 2015 assault on a university in which 148 people were killed.