Kenyan policeman killed in blast: police

NAIROBI (AFP) - A bomb blast killed a Kenyan policeman and wounded two others in Mandera, a northeastern town on the border with war-torn Somalia, police said Tuesday.

The explosion is the latest in a string of attacks in Kenya's restive border regions with Somalia, where Kenyan troops are fighting Islamist insurgents.

"The explosion occurred on the roadside where the officers were patrolling," a police source in the town said. "One died on the spot while the two others have been taken to hospital."

Kenya has suffered a series of bomb blasts and shootings since sending soldiers into Somalia to fight Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents in October 2011.

The violence has been blamed on the insurgents or their Kenyan supporters, although no attacks have been claimed by the Shebab.