Border fight injures four, several dead

MANDERA, KENYA: At least four Kenyans were injured when a mortar fired from Bulohawo town in Somalia landed on a residential house in Mandera Town.Bulohawo neighbours Mandera Town. The incident happened on Saturday when heavy fighting broke out between Al-Shabaab militants and Somalia troops.

Reports said at least 12 people, most of them fighters were killed in the latest clashes inside Somalia.The fighting lasted into the evening, locals and military said adding the militants were later driven out of the town.The four were treated and discharged from a local hospital on Saturday evening.North Eastern police boss Philip Tuimur said there was calm in the town on Sunday after the incident and that the injured sustained “small bruises”.Residents said tension remained high in Mandera with more security personnel being mobilized there as the fighting went on.

The militants were trying to take control of Bulohawo months after they were driven away from there.“We heard several explosions from the Somalia town which is few kilometers away but today it is quiet,” said a resident on the phone.The attack appeared to have come as a surprise, with the militants having been forced out of their major strongholds by troops from the African Union force AMISOM.The Amisom troops who include Kenyans are in control of most of the places where the militants had been in charge.

Reports indicate the militants are planning to launch fresh attacks on the troops in efforts to retake the control of their former bases.Security agents revealed they are on alert in the wake of warnings of attacks locally by remnants of the gang.“We urge Kenyans at large to be vigilant. Be it in a bar, bus, church, school, supermarket or on the road because they are planning to hit us,” said Nairobi police boss Moses Ombati.

A series of terror related attacks have happened in the country in the past months, which have claimed many lives and left others with serious wounds. The latest incident happened in Eastleigh in Nairobi where ten passengers were killed in an explosion on a mini-bus.Meanwhile, a special parliamentary committee constituted to probe this week's Garissa chaos is holed up in meetings to discuss security issues in the town.