2 Kenyan police officers killed in roadside blast in border region

At least two Kenyan police officers were killed and six others wounded in a roadside blast on Sunday in northeastern Kenya.

The officers from the quick response unit were on patrol from Arabia to Mandera town near the border with Somalia where they were hit by an improvised explosive device, police said.

The injured were sent to a local hospital and two of them are in critical condition, the police said.

Terrorist attacks frequently occurred at the border region between Kenya and Somalia since Kenyan soldiers crossed the border to Somalia to fight the al-Shabab militants in 2011.

The recent attacks in Kenya comes Uganda is on high alert due to terror threats. Police in Uganda announced Sunday that they had thwarted a bomb attack at a Pentecostal church in the capital.

They said they arrested a 28-year-old man as he attempted to enter the grounds of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral in Kampala with an explosive device in his backpack.

Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango told reporters that the man had been identified as Ibrahim Kintu and he confessed that his three accomplices had also been sent on similar missions to other churches.

Onyango said that a few days ago, police had received intelligence that terrorists wanted to plant bombs in some churches and they went on the alert and began checking anyone entering places of worship.

“Security agencies have been picking up intelligence that there are terrorists who are interested in planting bombs. We followed one and arrested him. He is helping us locate at least three more explosives in the hands of apparent terrorists on a mission to harm worshipers,” he said.

On July 11, 2010, suicide bombers detonated explosives, killing 74 soccer fans watching the World Cup final on television at a crowded restaurant and a rugby club in the capital.

On Nov. 16, 2021, three people were killed and 33 others were wounded in twin suicide bombings in Kampala.

Daesh/ISIS claimed responsibility for both incidents, saying they were carried out in revenge for Uganda sending troops to maintain peace in Somalia.