Landmine kills three policemen

Three police officers were killed in eastern Kenya yesterday when their vehicle hit a landmine, a senior official said, in an attack claimed by Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab.

The officers were part of a morning patrol in the Somali border region when their truck hit the improvised explosive device (IED), Mohamud Ali Saleh, the northeastern regional commissioner, said.

"The police car ran over an IED and we have casualties. All the dead officers are from one work station," Saleh said, without revealing the number of wounded officers.

"From past incidences, it is easy to see that even this one is the work of our enemy, the al-Shabaab. They plant these IEDs to target our security people."

The Kenyan Red Cross said eight officers were wounded.

"We are behind the attack in Liboi area. We destroyed the police car. Some died and others were injured," Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab's military operation spokesman, said.

Al-Shabaab, which seeks to topple Somalia's government and impose the Sharia law, says it will continue to attack Kenya until Nairobi withdraws its troops from an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.