Four injured after gunmen blow up security vehicle in northern Kenya

Four injured after gunmen blow up security vehicle in northern Kenya

2011-10-29 21:38:00 GMT+7 (ICT)

GARISSA, KENYA (BNO NEWS) -- At least four people were injured on Friday when unidentified gunmen blew up a Kenyan security vehicle in the Dadaab refugee camp in the country's north, officials said on Saturday.

An eyewitness at the refugee camp told the Xinhua news agency by telephone that the gunmen seemed to have been monitoring the police vehicle at a checkpoint along the Dadaab-Liboi road where vehicles from Nairobi assemble. The incident happened when the vehicle was heading to the Dadaaab refugee camp to beef up security in the area following threats by the Al-Shabaab militia of Somalia.

"The gunmen had planted something like a bomb or remote-controlled explosive device which blew up the vehicle with four occupants being injured, two seriously," the witness told Xinhua.

However, local officials said the vehicle, belonging to the country's paramilitary police, was hit by an explosive believed to be either a grenade or landmine. "Three police officers were injured after the GSU vehicle was hit by [an] explosive which we believe is either [a] grenade or landmine near Garissa town," a resident who did not want to be named said.

The incident comes after four senior education officials were killed in the northern Kenyan town of Mandera on Thursday. They died when the vehicle in which they were traveling in caught fire after being attacked by militants.

Local residents said the attack was carried out by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.

Last week, Al-Shabaab insurgents threatened retaliatory attacks to protest Kenya's military incursion into Somalia targeting Al-Shabaab in the lawless country. Kenya sent troops into Somalia on October 16 to help subdue Al-Shabaab militants, which it blames for a series of cross-border kidnappings of foreigners in its territory.

Al-Shabaab is the militant wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts which took over most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006. Despite efforts from the Somali and Ethiopian governments, the group has continued its violent insurgency in southern and central Somalia.

Somalia has been without an effective government since Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown two decades ago.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-10-29