Al-shabaab attack ambulance with pregnant woman, kills her husband in Mandera

MANDERA, Kenya, Dec 30- Al-Shabaab militants attacked an ambulance ferrying a pregnant woman to hospital and killed her husband in the latest incident in Mandera County.

The ambulance was enroute to Elwak referral hospital when it came under attack by gunmen.

Witnesses said they first targeted it after detonating an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED).

The husband to the expectant mother died in the attack while two others including the nurse and driver on board were injured in the Wednesday incident.

Police revealed that the ambulance belonged to the county government and was extensively damaged in the attack.

The survivors were taken to the Elwak hospital with multiple injuries and are currently stable, police and locals said.

North Eastern police boss Rono Bunei said the attackers escaped soon after the incident. He added the woman is in hospital but in critical condition.

This comes days after seven Al-Shabaab terrorists were killed by Kenya Special Forces soldiers in a raid in their camp in the vast Boni Forest, Lamu County.

The officers said they killed the terrorists and recovered communication equipment and weapons that were being used by the terror group to wreak havoc in the Lamu area that borders Somalia.

There have been fears of attacks in the area bordering Somalia in the past weeks. Reports said the terrorists planned to attack a security camp in new year.

A week ago, the Al-Shabaab militant group abducted and beheaded a chief in Wajir county in a macabre attack.

They had abducted a group of local security officials together with the chief before they released them and later killed the administrator.

The torso of Assistant Chief of Gumarey Sub Location Mr Omar Adan Buul was missing when the head was found on December 21.

The decapitated head was found placed on the roadside between Khorof Harar and Konton by herders.

The herders called police who picked up the head, before taking it to the local mortuary.

Al-Shabaab militants have been roaming the area in the past two weeks threatening to conduct large scale attacks.

The terrorists had earlier in the month destroyed a communication mast in Mandera county.

They also staged attacks in the same area two days ago and destroyed a police station before escaping.

There are fears of similar attacks after dozens of the militants crossed from Somalia to Kenya in Garissa border.

The gang was in three groups when they crossed into Kenya with intelligence reports revealing they were targeting security officials.

The border region has borne the brunt of repeated attacks from the militants who are at times aided by locals.

Somalia has not had a stable government after the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.

The area is near the Somalia border and the militants usually cross at will and stage attacks before escaping back.

Al-Shabaab terrorists have been attacking towns in the region especially in Mandera and Garissa counties after breaching security zones, which left dozens of civilians and security officials dead and wounded. More security personnel have since been deployed to the area and operations by the Border Patrol Unit heightened to tame the surge.

Kenyan troops are in Somalia to pursue and suppress the activities of the terror group.