Eight police officers killed in bomb blasts

Eight Kenyan police officers were killed when their vehicles ran over improvised bombs in two separate incidents near the border with Somalia, officials said.

The dead included a personal bodyguard for a local governor whose convoy was targeted.

The deaths came a day after Kenya’s police chief Josephbo in net announced that al-shabaab extremists based in Somalia were stepping up attacks inside the country.

He said al-shabaab is under pressure from African Union troops supporting Somalia’s government, which recently declared a new offensive against the extremist group.

In the last two weeks, attacks by al-shabaab in Kenya’s Garissa and Mandera counties have increased. Last week, an improvised bomb killed four people in a vehicle.