KDF kills 19 Al-Shabaab militants, recover vehicle, 10 AK 47 rifles and 3 RPGs in Lower Juba, Somalia
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Kenya Defence Forces Wednesday killed 19 Al-Shabaab militants in a clash in Afmadhow area, Somalia.
The KDF personnel said they recovered a vehicle, 10 AK 47 rifles and three Rocket Propelled Grenades.
Spokesman Col David Obonyo said the killings happened at about 10 am and that the militants planned an attack on a camp occupied by the Amisom and Somali National Army troops in Afmadhow, Lower Juba Region.
“The Al-Shabaab terrorists had approached the camp at night with the intention to attack and cut off the SNA from Amisom (KDF) camp.
KDF soldiers on patrol identified the militants and engaged them in a fierce battle.”
“The Al-Shabaab attempted to fight back but were swiftly repulsed by the KDF soldiers on patrol and those at the camp,” said Col Obonyo.
The statement did not indicate if there was a casualty on the Amisom troops.
Kenya has about 4,000 troops in the 22,000-strong African Union force battling al-Shabaab, which is part of al-Qaeda, in Somalia.
The incident comes two weeks after the US strike killed more than 150 al-Shabaab militants.
The Pentagon said the killings happened at a training camp where a large scale attack was being planned.
"We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and [African Union] forces," spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.
Mr Davis said the strike, by both drones and manned aircraft, took place on Saturday and targeted Raso Camp, a training facility about 195 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu.
The camp had been under surveillance for some time, according to Mr Davis. "There was a sense that the operational phase was about to happen," he said.
Davis said as many as 200 fighters were believed to be training at the Raso camp at the time of the strike and expressed confidence there were no civilian casualties.
The terror group, which is an affiliate of al-Qaeda, was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011 but has continued to launch frequent attacks in its bid to overthrow the Western-backed government.
The group has carried out a string of attacks in and out of Kenya including the January 15 one in El-Adde where they killed 180 KDF personnel.
