At least eight Kenyan security officers were killed in two separate bomb blasts in Eastern Kenya on Wednesday, Reuters quoted senior officials as saying. While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the governor’s convoy in Mandera, militant group al-Shabaab said it had planted an explosive that killed three policemen in Liboi (pictured above).
“Unfortunately I lost five of my security officers, including my personal bodyguard, in an attack on my convoy,” Mandera Governor Ali Robathe said in a Facebook post. In the Liboi incident, the vehicle transporting the police personnel had hit an improvised explosive device, North Eastern regional commissioner Mohamud Ali Saleh said. The attacks followed Inspector General of Police Joseph Bionnet warning about possible militant attacks.
Speaking to the news agency, al-Shabaab’s spokesperson Abdiasis Abu Musab said, “We are behind the attack in Liboi area. We destroyed the police car. Some died and others were injured.” The jihadist group has publicly declared its intention to oust the Somalian government and replace it with a regime run in accordance with Sharia law.
Al Shabaab has been targeting Kenya in a bid to force the country to withdraw its military support to an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Garissa county, where the Liboi attack occurred, has been the target of the militant group’s attacks. In 2015, an al-Shabaab perpetrated an attack at a local college which claimed the lives of 148 people.
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