IED explosion kills two cops on Liboi-Kulan road in Garissa
At least two cops were on Wednesday morning killed after a vehicle they were traveling ran over an Improvised Explosive Device along the Liboi-Kulan road in Garissa County.
The area where the incident happened is near the porous Kenya-Somalia border which most of times is breached by terrorists.
According to the police, the Border Patrol Unit vehicle was attacked by the Somali based militant group al Shabaab.
They had planted an IED on the road before setting it off as the vehicle approached the area. No arrests were made at the scene.
The landcruiser was racing on the road when it was hit, police said. It was badly damaged and killed one officer on the spot.
Another succumbed to the injuries later. At least five other officers were injured in the attack.
This is the latest attack after a lull for months following intensified operations in the area.
Kenya has increased operations in the area to address the terror related menace at large.
Locals have increasingly joined in the campaign to address the menace.
The terrorists cross through the Kenya-Somalia porous border for the mission.
Parts of Garissa have in the past been seen as hotbed for the terror group as they cross and camp there to plan attacks.
But persistent police operations have disrupted the plans.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of President Siad Barre’s military regime, which ushered in more than two decades of anarchy and conflict in a country deeply divided along clan lines.
Kenya launched Operation Linda Nchi on October 14, 2011, after gunmen seized tourists at the Coast which the Government saw as a threat to the country’s sovereignty as it targeted the nation’s economic lifeline-tourism.
Kenya’s incursion into southern Somalia started after the kidnapping of two Spanish women, who were working for MSF at the Dadaab refugee camp.
The abductions were carried out by the militants who the troops said planned to push away under the Operation Linda Nchi.