Two police officers died while five were Wednesday morning injured after an armored car they were traveling in was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device in Mandera near the Kenya-Somalia border.
The team from the Quick Response Unit moving at 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.
The attackers were not at the scene as they had escaped, police said.
The officers who sustained multiple injuries were rescued to a local hospital for attention, police said.
This is the latest incident to happen in the area amid reports 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.
Mohamed Hassan, 45 said he was driving a salon car when he was attacked by gunmen who were on the roadside along Banisa-Rhamu road.
He sustained a gunshot injury on his left leg while his passenger Ibrahim Hassan was also shot in his left leg.
One Adow Muhamed who was riding a motorcycle behind them was also shot in his left leg and stomach before the gunmen fled in the June 4 morning incident.
The victims were rescued and rushed to Rhamu Referral Hospital where they were admitted in serious condition.
Police said no arrest or recovery was made.
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 say 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 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 Landcruiser 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.
