Bomb blasts in Kenya kill one near Somalia border: police

NAIROBI - At least one person was killed and three others seriously wounded when twin explosions rocked the Kenyan town of Wajir near the Somalia border late Friday, police said on Saturday.

The blasts ripped through the town market shortly after 8:00 pm, a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It looks like these were improvised explosive devices," the officer said.

"We lost one person while three others were taken to hospital," he added.

No-one claimed responsibility for the attack, which police said was likely the work of Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents or their sympathisers.

The region along Kenya's 700-kilometre (400-mile) border with Somalia has seen a series of attacks, mainly on police but also against hotels and restaurants, since Kenya sent its troops to Somalia to fight the Shebab in October 2011 and authorities routinely blame the attacks on the rebels.

Wajir, which lies about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Somali border, has been the scene of many of such attacks.

In September, one person was killed and four wounded when a grenade was hurled inside a market. In May, a Kenyan paramilitary officer was shot by unknown gunmen. And in February a soldier was killed and three people, including two policemen, were wounded when a grenade was thrown at them.

The Shebab claimed responsiblity for an attack in September on a shopping mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi, in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia. At least 67 people died in the four-day siege.