- There are fears more such attacks will continue in the border region and may happen in any part of the country.
- A team of National Police Reserve that responded was met with resistance, officials said adding this left six of the NPR dead.
Image: FILE
At least 12 people including six soldiers were on Tuesday killed in two separate attacks linked to the al Shabaab terror group in Lamu and Garissa.
The attackers used Improvised Explosive Devices to strike security agencies as they moved on roads also leaving dozens injured.
North Eastern Regional Commissioner John Otieno confirmed the incidents but declined to give further information.
"We had incidents in the area but will give you more later,” Otieno said.
This is the highest number of casualties so far this year as the terror group keeps moving into the country from Somalia where they have been facing onslaught from authorities.
There are fears more such attacks will continue in the border region and may happen in any part of the country.
On Tuesday, the group targeted a passenger bus in Afaad in Mandera by shooting at it to force the driver to stop in vain, police said.
The driver sped off with a deflated tyre saving almost 50 passengers who were on board.
In the Sangailu area, Garissa, authorities said the terror group targeted troops with an IED killing four of them.
This is after their vehicle ran over an IED. The personnel were also attacked with guns, witnesses said.
A team of National Police Reserve that responded was met with resistance, officials said adding this left six of the NPR dead.
Another IED hit a KDF vehicle in the Mararani Area of Responsibility killing two troops, officials said the attacks happened almost simultaneously. Response teams arrived at the scene and rescued more personnel.
This increased to 12, the number of security officers killed in a single day in terror-related incidents. Security agencies have warned of worse times ahead as the attacks increase.
Last week on June 7, two police officers died while five were injured after an armored car they were traveling in was hit by an IED in Mandera near the Kenya-Somalia border.
The team from the Quick Response Unit was moving to the Qurqura area in Elwak on an armored Land Rover when they ran over an IED that had been set up by suspected al Shabaab terrorists, police said.
The two succumbed to the injuries in hospital.
The IED forced the vehicle to roll off the road and landed in a ditch injuring the seven officers on board in the 6 am incident.
The officers had gone to Elwak town and were from Alungu for fueling when they were attacked.
Tuesday’s attack was the latest incident to happen in the area amid reports that dozens of al Shabaab militants are now operating there in readiness for attacks.
On June 4 gunmen believed to be al Shabaab terrorists shot and wounded a motorist, his passenger and a motorcyclist in Olla area, Rhamu, Mandera county.
On June 3, a member of the National Police Reserve was killed in an attack on a communication mast at a village town in Wajir near the Kenya-Somalia border.
The gang struck in the morning at Ogaralle Town attacking the local Safaricom communication mast. The mast is at the Ogaralle Primary School where it is being guarded by NPR who responded prompting a shootout.
The attackers shot and killed one of the NPR who was guarding the mast before they retreated into a nearby bush.
Officials said there has been an increase in the sightings of al Shabaab terrorists in the area amid fears they plan a major attack.
It also emerged that the gang stole two rifles belonging to two police officers who had been killed earlier on in an attack by the same gang near the Kenya-Somalia border in Mandera.
Two police officers were killed on the Elele-Takaba road in Mandera on June 2 as a contingent of security officers from the Elele-based Quick Response Unit (QRU) were on patrol.
Five others were injured. After their evacuation, it emerged the deceased rifles with more than 30 bullets each were missing.
The incident happened after the terrorists fired a rocket-propelled grenade targeting a Land Cruiser pickup with elite officers in Mandera county.
On May 22, multi-agency teams stopped a major planned terrorist attack and recovered an arsenal of weapons in an operation in Alango, Garissa county.
Police said the team recovered six AK47 rifles, two Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), PKM, two grenades other items.
The team also found warheads, 20 magazines and a belt of 200 rounds, a cell phone and a memory card.
This is after the team raided an al Shabaab camp in Alango in Garissa which militants planned to use to launch attacks in the county.
More personnel have been deployed in the area in efforts to tame the attacks.
The border region has borne the brunt of repeated attacks from the militants who are at times aided by locals. Somalia has not had a stable government after the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.
The area is near the Somalia border and the militants usually cross at will and stage attacks before escaping back.
Al Shabaab terrorists have been attacking places in the region, especially in Mandera and Garissa counties after breaching security zones, which left dozens of civilians and security officials dead and wounded.
The terrorists have been planting explosives on the routes used by the security agencies.
Kenyan troops are in Somalia to pursue and suppress the activities of the terror group