NAIROBI (SD) – At least two passengers have been killed and several wounded after suspected al-Shabaab militants attacked two buses in Mandera county near Kenya’s border with Somalia.

Heavily armed fighters have opened fire at the buses at an area between Olla and Sarman villages on Monday, Rono Bunei, northeastern regional police commander confirmed.

According to Bunei, one of the buses overturned as the driver sped off from the scene of the attack.

The commander said the government dispatched forces to hunt down the perpetrators.

“We have sent reinforcement to the area to pursue the attackers who escaped towards the Somalia-Kenya border. They will be caught,” the police commander vowed.

The witnesses said 12 casualties have been rushed to the local hospital with multiple injuries.

Today’s attack comes barely two months after a bus ran over a roadside improvised bomb on Lafey-Mandera road near the Kenya-Somali border in Mandera County, killing five passengers and wounded dozens.

The bus was en route from Lafey to Mandera and passing along the Arabia Road, a desert highway, when the explosion took place.

Al-Shabaab militant group had claimed the responsibility for the attack.

Mandera has been borne the brunt of grenade and gun attacks in the last several years since Kenya took its troops to Somalia to fight the al-Shabaab group.

Al-Shabaab group has been attacking areas along Kenya-Somalia border while targeting mostly non- locals working in the region.

Many people, majority of them non- locals have as a result lost their lives with others left with permanent injuries.

Kenya had sent its troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabaab following several attacks in Kenya’s coastal region allegedly conducted by the terror group.

The group vowed to continue staging attacks on Kenya’s soil until the East Africa nation withdraws from Somalia.