A high-ranking Al-Shabaab explosive expert has been arrested by the Kenyan police.

Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet (pictured), in a statement, said that the suspect, Ahmed Abdi Yare, is among several other terror suspects arrested, who have been behind the attacks within Mandera County.

The police recovered an AK-47, 40 bullets and bomb-making materials when they arrested the suspect.

“We have also stepped our counter-terrorism operations in the region, aimed at eliminating the operatives who have infiltrated into the border areas from Somalia and their collaborators,” Boinnet said.

The arrests come in the wake of the death of 13 police officers who were killed by IEDS in two separate incidents in Garissa County.

On Wednesday, three police officers have been killed after a vehicle they were traveling in hit a landmine today at 6am in Liboi, Garissa County, a week after the militia killed a chief and abducted two Kenya Police Reservists (KPR) in Omar Jillo village, Mandera County.

Four other officers were injured on Thursday after an improvised explosive device (IED) destroyed their vehicle along the Malelei-Kulan road in Liboi, the same area where five officers escorting Mandera Governor Ali Roba were killed in a similar attack on Wednesday.

“The Al-Shabaab are dispatching operatives into parts of the Northeastern region to lay IEDs along routes used by our security patrols in efforts to frustrate our security operations at the border areas.”