4 killed in IED attack in northern Kenya

By Magdalene Mukami and Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Four people, including a government official, were killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack Friday in the northern Kenyan town of Mandera.

A government official, who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, said the attack occurred on a border patrol route between the towns of Lafey and Elwak.

“The attack happened on Friday on the road connecting Lafey and Elwak;11 who were injured have been rushed to the hospital while four people have died from the explosion,” he said.

Fredrick Shisia, Mandera, county commissioner, confirmed to local media in Kenya that the four who have been killed were traveling in a commercial matatu (minibus) on a route close to the Kenyan-Somali border.

Shisia told Kenya's Daily Nation: "It is unfortunate that two of my chiefs were in the same vehicle and [one] is dead and the other is in a critical condition."

He said police were treating the incident as a terror attack as the Somali based-al Shabaab militant group has carried out numerous assaults along the porous Kenya-Somali attack in the past.

The latest attack, for which the militant group claimed responsibility, happened on June 6 when four aid workers were killed by a roadside bomb in Garissa county.

More than 34 police officers were killed in similar attacks last month while on border patrols in northern Kenya.

In previous years, the Somali-based al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab amped up terror attacks in Kenya and Somalia during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.