At least 8 police officers are dead after their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device near the Somali border in a suspected extremist attack, according to Kenyan officials.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share the information, said those killed Saturday in Wajir County were among 13 officers who were pursuing extremists who had kidnapped police reservists.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Somali Islamist insurgents carry out frequent attacks on Kenyan security forces.
Somali al Shabaab insurgents claimed responsibility on Friday for kidnapping three Kenyan police reservists from Wajir, in northeast Kenya near the Somali border.
"Last night, we captured a village called Konton in Wajir county. We left the village and took three Kenyan policemen with us," Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters by phone.
Kenyan military forces have occupied part of southern Somalia along the two countries' shared border since 2011. The Kenyans, along with allied Somali militia, wrested back control of the territory from al Shabaab after a spate of kidnappings on Kenyan soil.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)
