Kenyan troops have killed nearly 60 suspected members of the
al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militant group during a fierce fighting in
southern Somalia, a Kenya’s military spokesman says.
Col. Joseph Owuoth said in a statement on Thursday that Kenyan soldiers
under the African Union command used helicopter gunships and artillery against
al-Shabab Takfiri militants in Afmadow, a town located about 100 kilometers
inland from the port of Kismayo.
"In the onslaught, 57 al-Shabab militants were killed and unknown
number injured," Owuoth said.
The spokesman added that at least five gun-mounted pickup trucks known
as "technicals" were also destroyed in the offensive.
In January, al-Shabab militants targeted a Kenyan military base in the
southern Somali town of Kulbiyow, near the Kenyan border.
Kenyan authorities said that nine soldiers lost their lives in the
assault, while al-Shabab said it killed at least 66.
Last January, al-Shabab said it had killed over 100 Kenyan troops in El
Adde, a Somali camp near the border with Kenya.
Suspected al-Shabab militants kidnap 3 teachers in Kenya
Meanwhile, Kenyan police said Thursday that gunmen had kidnapped at
least three Kenyan teachers from Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya.
Three men with pistols abducted the teachers with the Udha Academy in
the Hagadera section of the world's largest refugee camp, which hosts more than
300,000 Somali refugees.
Mohamud Saleh, the northeastern regional security coordinator, said
security forces sealed the route into neighboring Somalia, where the gunmen are
suspected to have come from.
Kenyan authorities say the camp has become a recruitment and training
ground for al-Shabab.
The government in Nairobi blamed al-Shabab for the kidnapping of two
Spanish aid workers from Dadaab camp in October 2011.
In June 2012, four international aid workers were kidnapped from Dadaab
in an assault that saw a Kenyan driver killed.
The militant group has vowed revenge on Kenya for sending soldiers to
Somalia to fight it.
Kenya says multiple cross-border attacks led to its decision to send
troops to Somalia.
The al-Shabab militant group, which once had control over many parts of
Somalia, including the capital city Mogadishu, aims to topple the central
government and push out the African Union mission to Somalia, known as AMISOM,
which is made up of soldiers from Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Ethiopia, and other
African countries.
AMISOM and Somali troops driven al-Shabab out of all major urban
strongholds and ports, but the group still stages attacks on targets in smaller,
more remote areas, posing a threat to peace.
-PressTV
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