MANDERA, Kenya — A wave of attacks in northern Kenya left three people dead and 26 wounded, provoking a backlash by security forces who beat scores of civilians at the site of one attack in a town on the country’s border with Somalia, officials said.
One soldier was killed in an explosion that struck a Kenyan army truck in the border town of Mandera, and 11 others were wounded, including a few who were seriously wounded and had to be airlifted to the city of Garissa, said defense spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir.
The attack in Mandera is the sixth in a series of roadside bombs and grenade attacks following the entry of Kenyan troops into Somalia last month. Kenya sent the troops into Somalia after a string of kidnappings and attacks on Kenyan soil that it blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabab.
In Garissa, two people were killed and 15 wounded in separate grenade attacks Thursday evening, provincial police chief Leo Nyongesa said. He said the grenade attacks happened simultaneously, one at a popular restaurant and another involving a group of people standing in the street.
