Somali Islamist rebels say they have captured Kenyan troops

Al Shabaab fighters attacked a remote Somali army base and entered a nearby town close to the border with Kenya yesterday, saying they had killed dozens of Kenyan soldiers in an African Union force supporting the government.

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.

According to Al shabaab spokesman, 100 Kenyan soldiers were killed in El Adde attack as unspecified number of KDF soldiers have been captured alive and held as prisoners of war by Al shabaab. In the a year ago, the terrorist group has launched multiple guerrilla-style attacks on AMISOM bases to drive out foreign troops and impose its severe version of Islamic law throughout the region.

In Friday’s raid, Abu Musab said the militants detonated a vehicle laden with explosives at the fence of the base in El-Adde and fired rocket-propelled grenades at the troops inside.

“There was suicide attack followed by the fighting and it seems that the base was stormed”, Ahmed said.

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

The African Union’s AMISOM force, which includes Kenyans, along with Somali troops have driven al Shabaab from major strongholds in Somalia in a wave of offensives.

“Our soldiers are still on the ground for a search and rescue mission”, she said. “We have engaged the enemy and severely degraded him”, he added.

Kenya said Sunday it was leading a search-and-rescue mission in southwest Somalia after al-Shabab seized an African Union Mission in Somalia base.

The attack is described as the worst since Kenya sent its troops to battle Al-Shabaab in southern Somalia in 2011.

In a statement, Al-Shabab claimed they had killed more than 63 Kenyan “crusaders”.

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.