KDF shells Somali town after rebels retreat

Written By:Margaret Kalekye/Reuters,    Posted: Sun, Sep 30, 2012

Oguna dismissed as propaganda claims that they had killed children Kenyan warships shelled the southern Somali port of Kismayu overnight after al Qaeda-linked rebels said they had abandoned the city, residents said on Sunday. Stunned by an assault by sea, air and ground forces late on Friday night, al Shabaab rebels fled the city that had been their key source of revenue, retreating to surrounding forests and towns. The shells may have been targeting any remaining pockets of resistance or military installations in the city that was the rebels' last stronghold. "The ships were firing deafening shells to the outskirts last night but several shells landed on houses," said Samira Ismail, a local mother of four. Al Shabaab said two children were killed and other people injured by the shells, a statement rejected as propaganda by Kenyan military. "The whole world knows who targets young children certainly not KDF or SNA. Such cheap propaganda against KDF & SNA will not dent the desire and resolve of the Somali people to get Al Shabaab out" said the Kenya Defense Forces on its twitter page. KDF added that it is planning to get into south of the Port City of Kismayu "The troops are consolidating and making plans to expand into the southern part of the city," Kenyan military spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna told Reuters. "A lot of caution must be exercised here. We don't want to get into a situation where we start to lose troops here and there." The southern part is the city centre and whoever wins it will effectively have control over the port and other strategic installations. The Kenya Defence Force and the Somalia National Army, fighting under the flag of the African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM), have not suffered any casualties in the operation, Oguna said. An al Shabaab official said that although the group had ceded control of Kismayu, its fighters were poised to engage the allied troops once they enter the city. "We are just waiting for the AU and Somali troops to enter the town. We shall fight them in streets and alleys. We abandoned the town. Why don't they go in if they have the guts?" Sheikh Hudayfa Abdirahman, the group's head of Jubba region, told Reuters.