(CNN) — Police looking for illegal weapons raided a house Wednesday in Mombasa, Kenya, sparking a deadly battle that included grenade explosions and gunfire.
A police officer and two suspected militants were killed, and eight other people were wounded, authorities said.
The anti-terrorism police unit raided the house in Kenya's second-largest city, a popular tourist destination, and found that the suspects had no identity cards, said regional police chief Aggrey Adoli.
"We cannot rule out that they are enemies from Al-Shabaab who were planning an attack following the fall of Kismayo" in neighboring Somalia, Adoli told CNN.
The al Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabaab is trying to overthrow the Somali government, and has also been blamed for violence in Kenya.
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