One Kenyan police officer dead after Somali Islamist twin attacks

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One Kenyan police officer dead after Somali Islamist twin attacks

By Feisal Omar, MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants attacked two Kenyan police convoys in northern Kenya on Friday, killing at least one police officer, police and a spokesman for the group said.

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By Feisal Omar, MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants attacked two Kenyan police convoys in northern Kenya on Friday, killing at least one police officer, police and a spokesman for the group said.

The al Shabaab group, which seeks to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government and impose a strict version of Sharia law, has carried out regular assaults in neighbouring Kenya in retaliation for Kenya's contributing troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

"This afternoon, we launched twin attacks," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military spokesman, told Reuters.

Militants killed one police officer and injured more in the first attack. They later attacked a second vehicle using a road-side bomb, he said, adding the militants had "spared the public vehicles" that were being escorted.

Kenyan authorities confirmed that one police officer had been killed.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri; editing by Edith Honan and Jason Neely)