1st LD Writethru: Blast kills 4 in Kenya's border town

At least four people were killed on Tuesday after the vehicle in which they were travelling in ran over an improvised explosive device (IED) in Dadaab in northeast Kenya.

Regional government official Mohamud Saleh said that the IED might have been planted by suspected Al-Shabaab militants at night.

Saleh said they believe the assailants might have been targeting security officers who have stepped up patrols along the porous border in Garissa County.

"We suspect that it is Al-Shabaab militants who planted the IED on Monday night. Our officers have been carrying out operations in the area. And so we suspect that the militia were targeting one of our security vehicles but unfortunately it exploded on a private vehicle," Saleh said.

He said the incident occurred at Aligabay, 70kms from Liboi town at the border between Kenya and Somalia.

Locals and security sources said the four occupants who were in Landcruiser vehicle died on the spot after their vehicle they were traveling in ran over an explosive device.

The victims included two men, a woman and a child. Saleh said the incident happened just ten minutes after a police Landcruiser full of officers who were heading towards Liboi passed the area.

"We have every reason to believe that that militia were targeting the officers but fortunately for no reason or another it did not step on the IED," said Saleh.

The government administrator said that the officers made a U-turn to see what had happened and traced the foot prints which were going towards Liboi town. No arrest has been made so far.

Kenyan security personnel patrolling the Somalia border have been hit with a series of explosion attacks since Kenya sent its troops to fight Al-Shabaab inside Somalia, often killing or injuring officers.

The latest incident in Garissa County came as police are still trying to piece information that will lead to the arrest of gunmen suspected to be members of Al-Shabaab who shot dead a local government administrator in Mandera region.

Saleh said eight militants whose sole target was to eliminate the chief shot him in the chest, stomach and shoulder before fleeing.

They then searched his house and took with them his personal affects including 2 mobile phones.

Saleh urged members of the public to volunteer information that will assist the police in arresting those behind the two incidences which he described as isolated.

Since Kenyan soldiers crossed into Somalia, several attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them. Endit