Kenya Jets Target Militants After Group Says 100 Soldiers Killed

Jihadist websites in Somalia claimed that 12 Kenyan soldiers were captured.

The spokesman for the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) said al Shabaab fighters overran the Somali army base and Amisom had counter-attacked.

The El Adde attack was carried out by suicide bombers using improvised explosive devices on vehicles and “the soldiers affected by the attack are a company size force”, Defence Secretary Raychelle Omamo said in a separate statement on the Ministry of Interior’s website.

In the attack on Janaale, the group claimed to have killed 80 African Union soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Francisco Madeira has strongly condemned the dawn attack on its base by Al-Shabaab militants.

The general said he would not release details for security reasons.

“However, we will keep Kenyans updated as events unfold”, he added.

MOGADISHU Somalia (Xinhua) – Somalia’s Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed on Sunday to have killed 100 Kenyan soldiers serving under the AU mandate in the Horn of Africa nation following the Friday attack in the Gedo region.

She also disclosed that other soldiers who were injured were being treated at a hospital in Wajir and would be airlifted to Nairobi should need for specialised treatment arise.

They now want Kenya to withdraw its troops from Somalia.

“KDF’s priority as is our norm in military operations was to degrade the enemy which we have already done through a concerted effort of both land and air assets in the last 48 hours”, Mwathethe said.

The Kenya Defence Forces camp had a company of not more than 120 soldiers of which an unknown number was killed in the attack, others injured while others are missing.

Mwathethe vowed to continue pushing back against al-Shabab.

African Union forces, which total around 22,000 soldiers from several African countries, have spent almost a decade fighting al-Shabab forces in Somalia.

Prosecutors said Ahmed and Yusuf abandoned their homes in Sweden in 2008 to travel to Somalia, where they were born, to undergo military and doctrinal training with al Shabaab. “I stand with you”, he said in a statement.

Al-Shabaab said that the latest attack comes as response to Kenyan occupation of parts of Somalia and its military persecution of innocent Muslims in Kenya.

Acting US attorney Kelly Currie said the defendants were “committed supporters” of the Islamist insurgent group, which holds large swathes of territory in the south and centre of Somalia.

Meanwhile, President Uhuru Kenyatta wished the injured soldiers quick recovery and urged Kenyans to pray for them.