WAJIR, Kenya, 18 August 2010 - Hardline Islamists from Somalia are increasingly launching cross-border raids into Kenya's remote north east despite a heightened state of alert there, local residents and officials said.

Kenya has long cast a wary eye at its anarchic neighbour where first clan warlords and now Islamist insurgents have reduced government to impotence.

Now in Kenya's arid North Eastern province, there is talk of an increase in gun-battles between al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab fighters and rival Somali militia groups bent on control of parts of southern Somalia.

At the Dadachabulla border post, local elder Mohamed Barre Ali said people were living under constant threat of cross-border attacks from al Shabaab. The rebels control swathes of central and southern Somalia as well as much of the capital Mogadishu.

"Last month they attacked a hotel, spraying bullets all over the place for over two hours," Ali told Reuters. Three people were abducted during the raid while the hotel owner's young daughter was shot in the thigh.

"It was not the first raid and it will not be the last. They issued another warning they would attack us two days ago," he said pointing to bullet-pocked houses and cars.

In July, Kenyan troops clashed with al Shabaab fighters along the Somali border amid reports both sides were sending reinforcements to the area. Twice hit by al Qaeda-linked attacks, Kenya has trained thousands of Somali recruits to beef up troops loyal to Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, drawing condemnation from al Shabaab.

But it is the alleged support of al Shabaab's enemies that is proving controversial along the frontier.