NAIROBI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Five Kenyan local government officials were abducted Monday in an ambush by al-Shabab terrorists in Mandera County near the border with Somalia, police have confirmed.

Mandera South police commander Julius Njeru confirmed the attack and said the administrators were traveling from Wargadud to Elwak town for duty when they were attacked and hijacked along the way.

The police and witnesses believe the local administrators, locally known as chiefs, were driven to Somalia because the area is near the main Kenya-Somalia border.

Kenyan President William Ruto is expected to tour the northern region this week, prompting security operations.

Njeru said a major operation was mounted after the incident in which the attackers who were waiting are said to have fled to Somalia.

Police believe the attackers had prior information on the movements of the administrators.

Mandera County has been a hotbed of militants targeting locals and chiefs, with similar incidents reported in the previous years. Last year in December, a driver attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations was shot and killed by suspected al-Shabab terrorists in an attack in Mandera County.

Since the Kenyan military crossed into Somalia in 2011, some attacks believed to have been carried out by al-Shabab continue to occur in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa counties of northeastern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the group in Somalia. Enditem

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