Seven killed in north-east Kenya as vehicles run over explosives
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Seven people were killed in two separate incidents when vehicles ran over improvised explosives in north-east Kenya, with police saying in one of the cases that they suspected members of al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab were responsible.
Four died in the first incident late on Tuesday when a vehicle was escorting a convoy of buses between the towns of Banisa and Mandera. Another security team from Banisa was attacked when it responded.
"Upon reaching the scene, they were attacked by suspected al Shabaab" fighters, Mandera police station said in a report late on Tuesday. "The officers managed to repulse and flush them out, and rescued the two (wounded) and retrieved the bodies
In the second incident, three people were killed when a public service vehicle hit another improvised device on the road at Elele Settlement in the same region, the area's Elwak Wargadud Division police station said in a report on Wednesday.
The report did not say who had set the explosive and added that another five were wounded.
Al Shabaab has been fighting for more than a decade to topple Somalia's central government. It has attacked targets in Kenya for years to pressure the country into withdrawing troops from peacekeeping missions supporting Somalia's government.
In the last two weeks, attacks linked to al Shabaab have killed another 10 people, according to police reports.
(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Conor Humphries)
