NAIROBI, Kenya — Two Cuban doctors were abducted near Kenya’s border with Somalia on Friday, in a bold attack that left one police officer dead and that officials say was probably linked to the Shabab militant group.

The abduction took place early Friday when the doctors were on their way to work. They left their residence and were traveling to Mandera County Referral Hospital, less than two miles from the border, in a government vehicle with two police officers escorting them, when two vehicles boxed them in, the police said.

One police officer was shot and killed, and the attackers spirited the doctors across the border in their own vehicle. The car was later recovered, along with a driver, who was taken in for questioning, the police said.

A spokesman for the police, Charles Owino, said the attackers might be linked to the Shabab militant group, an Al Qaeda affiliate, but he left open the possibility that it could be another group.