Arab League condemns attack on KDF in Somalia

Military pallbearers carry the coffins of four Kenyan soldiers who were killed in Somalia, at a ceremony to receive their bodies which were airlifted to Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.

Kenya is involved in a search and rescue operation for its soldiers after an African Union base was attacked by Al-Shabab militants in El Adde, Somalia.

Al-Shabab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu Mudan said on the group’s online radio that at least 63 soldiers were killed in the attack.

“Full details of those injured and killed will be made public after families affected are notified”, Omamo said.

African Union troops, now numbering about 22,000 from several African nations, have spent almost a decade battling al Shabaab insurgents in Somalia, a country mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991.

Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for some of the worst terror attacks in East Africa.

Kenyan Defense Secretary Raychelle Omamo told reporters Sunday that there is an ongoing search, rescue and recovery operation in the area where the attack happened.

There was no immediate comment from the Kenyan military or AMISOM, the African Union force in which the Kenyans serve. “With our allies, we will continue in Somalia to fulfill our mission”, he said in Friday’s comments.

Al-Shabaab said in a statement they also captured alive other Kenyan troops and seized weapons and military vehicles in the dawn attack on Friday that has been roundly condemned by the global community.

Fighters from the group exchanged gunfire with AU peacekeepers according to a Somali military official.

Al-Shabab often exaggerates the number of soldiers it kills while the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Kenyan government officials often downplay the tolls, AFP reported.

President Uhuru Kenyatta described the loss as heartbreaking.

Al Shabab said the attack was in retaliation for the Kenyan “invasion of Muslim lands” and what it said was the army’s “persecution of innocent Muslims” inside Kenya, a reference to the government’s pursuit of suspected militants in the country.