Monday, October 17, 2011

Assault: Kenyan troops attack



By Boniface Ongeri and Cyrus Ombati
The military assault by Kenyan forces on suspected Al-Shabaab positions inside war torn Somalia is underway.
Kenya’s military planes and helicopters overflew the border with Somalia as troops and their paramilitary counterparts around Liboi in Garissa County crossed the frontier to engage the militants suspected to have kidnapped Kenyans and foreigners.At the same time police revealed on Sunday that a gunman who engaged police in a six-hour shootout in Nairobi’s Buruburu estate on Saturday is suspected to have had military training in Somalia.
Kenyan troops backed by planes and helicopter gunships attack entrenched Al-Shabaab positions inside Somalia[PHOTO:STANDARD]
Anti-terror police were on Sunday called in to countercheck their data bank on Kenyans who are on the watch list after undergoing paramilitary training.
Kenya’s ground troops will be operating in terrain of varying plateaus, plains and highlands.
The area near the border with Kenya alternates between grassland to patches of forest, but most of the area is scrub covered and semi-arid, with temperatures ranging from 30_ C to 40_ C.
The Kenyan planes and helicopters are said by witnesses to have bombed selected Al-Shabaab positions, and more firepower is believed to be on the way.
Witnesses have reported heavy movement of Kenyan troops and artillery towards the border.
The move came as Somali government troops and allied militia have wrested control of an Al-Shabaab stronghold in the south of the country after reported bombing by military aircraft on Saturday, officials and witnesses said.Militia
Troops from the Western-backed government, as well as gunmen from the pro-government Ras Kamboni militia, took control of the southern Somali town of Qoqani in the Lower Juba region, which borders Kenya.
"The government forces took control of Qoqani after heavy shelling on the positions of the Shebab and their affiliates," said Abdurrahman Mohamed, a government security official.
"The enemy is lost and we will continue pursuing them," he added.
The official did not specify the form of the shelling, but witnesses said there had been aerial bombardment in Qoqani late Saturday before Shebab troops pulled out of the town.
"Several aircraft dropped bombs on the jungle area of Qoqani causing heavy explosions, and the Shebab withdrew from the town without face-to-face fighting," said Sugule Ali, an elder in a nearby village.
"The shelling was very heavy and we could hear the planes flying over the jungle as big bombs were dropped," Nuradin Haji Hassan, another witness said.
"We don’t know to which country these planes belonged, but they have carried out several rounds of aerial bombardment in the Qoqani area," he added.
However, Al-Shabaab still controls large areas of south and central Somalia.
Top Kenyan security officials spent a good part of the day in meetings with aid agencies, after they threatened to pull out following the abduction of two female Spanish aid workers on Thursday.
As the country flexed its military muscle, the security officials pointed fingers at the influx of refugees at Dadaab without proper screening as a blow to stability.Al shabaab
A statement from the public relations office at Defence Headquarters said: "Kenya was using various options in pursuing the Al-Shabaab militants."
"We have a long border with Somalia which stretches 1,400 kilometres from Mandera to Kiunga and we are exploring aerial, naval and ground offensive options," the statement said.
The statement said other international forces in a "concerted effort and rescue operation" joined Kenya.
The General Service Unit officers were deployed to back up support of the military camps along the vast border.
Kenyans were united in support of the move to engage the military in pursuing and crushing Al-Shabaab militia across its border with Somalia.
As Kenya assembles its troops along the Kenya-Somalia border scholars too were in agreement that the action was long overdue.
Lawyers argued Kenya would base her entry into Somalia on the right to self-defence, including the right to combat terror, which is a cornerstone of international law enshrined in the UN Charter (Article 51) and many Security Council Resolutions.
But security officials continued to be cagey over whether or not Kenyan troops were actually in Somalia.
On Sunday, North Eastern Provincial Police Officer (PPO) Leo Nyongesa, who is leading troops along the border, denied claims they had entered the war torn country.
Nyongesa said they are assembling troops in the area in preparation for instructions for action.
"No one has gone into Somalia yet. We are assembling ready for anything that may come," he said on the phone.
But an official aware of the operations said several intelligence officials have already ventured into the chaotic country to assess the situation on the ground.
An official at Defence Headquarters confirmed Kenyan forces would start entering Somalia to flush out Al-Shabaab militants.
"Our forces are assembling at the border points where they are getting briefs and other relevant instructions as they prepare to enter Somalia," said the officer.
"They have been instructed to get ready for the assignment which will mainly include pushing the Al-Shabaab rebels far away inside Somalia from the common border," the source said.
Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia noted: "It is the Al-Shabaab who have declared war against us, we have subsequently done the same and there no is turning back."
Truckloads of military forces from various battalions in the country have already left for Moyale, Kiunga, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousOctober 25, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    Actauly Somalian president should be ashamed he shuld remamber that eve when he was elected he was on Kenyan soil and was protected by kenyan soldiers...

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)