Nairobi, Nov 6 (IANS): Kenya's counter-terrorism police unit said its special forces carried out intelligence-led operations on the border with Somalia, destroying two al-Shabab makeshift camps.

It said the operation, carried out by the Special Operations Group, Kenya's elite counter-terrorism group, led to the recovery of materials for the making of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), including detonators, switches, IED cylinders and sodium nitrates which the militant group had planned to use to stage attacks across the northern region.

"The camps on the Kenya-Somalia border were established as IED assembly camps and were to be used to attack and disrupt civil transport and commercial activities on our major roads linking Garissa and Lamu counties," it said in a statement, Xinhua news agency reported.

Al-Shabab extremists abandoned the camps, leaving behind IED-making materials, bullets, communication gadgets and assorted ammunitions for hand-held rocket launchers, the statement said.

Since the Kenya military crossed into Somalia in 2011 to help fight al-Shabab, several attacks believed to have been carried out by the group have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa counties in northeastern Kenya.