Kenya battles Somali Islamist militants
KENYAN troops have clashed with Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants in southern Somalia, the latest attack in a three-month-long push forward against insurgent bases.
Two Kenyan soldiers and one Somali government were killed during an attack late yesterday on hardline Shehab positions at Delbio and Hosingo, said Kenyan army spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir, who claimed Shebab gunmen had retreated.
Kenya “unfortunately lost two of its personnel while TFG (the Somali government) lost one”, Chirchir said, adding that 11 Shehab fighters were killed in the attacks, some 30 kilometres from the Kenyan frontier.
None of the casualty reports could be independently verified, and the Shebab have repeatedly dismissed as propaganda Kenyan claims that it has killed large numbers of its forces.
Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia in October to battle the extremist Shehab it blamed for a spate of attacks on home soil, and are fighting alongside Somali pro-government forces.
The Shebab insurgents control large parts of central and southern Somalia but are facing increasing pressure from government forces and regional armies.
Armies from neighbouring countries are converging on the Shebab – Kenyan forces in the south, Ethiopian soldiers in the west, and an African Union force in Mogadishu made up of 10,000 troops from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti.
The Horn of Africa country has been ravaged by a nearly uninterrupted civil war since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre sparked vicious bloodletting by rival militias fighting for power.
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