A wounded Kenyan soldier (C) serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is received by military officers and paramedics at the Wilson airport in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, January 17, 2016.
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“As I speak to you today, our defense forces are conducting intense search, rescue and recovery operations to make sure we bring home our fallen and our injured heroes that have been and remain our key priority”, Kenyatta said.
Al Shabaab insurgents on Sunday said they had captured Kenyan troops during last week’s attack at an AMISOM base in El-Adde, Somalia. “We have all together contributed vitally to global peace and security”, he added.
According to preliminary analysis, the use of Vehicle Borne Improvised Devices (VBIED) in Friday’s raid totally devastated the KDF defences.
“Full details of those injured and killed will be made public after families affected are notified”, Omamo said. In the U.S. military, a company has 100 to 200 soldiers, according to the U.S. Army’s website. There was no independent death toll.
Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke on Monday said the attacks by “remnants of Al-Shabaab” would not prevent the government from eradicating the group.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday that “some of our patriots in uniform” were killed.
“This audacious attack the largest single attack against the Kenyan military inside Somalia comes as a response to the aggressive Kenyan invasion of Muslim lands and the Kenyan military’s continued persecution of innocent Muslims, particularly in the northeast and the coastal regions”, the statement said.
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The Shebab, fighting to overthrow Somalia’s internationally-backed and AU-protected government, has lost much territory in Somalia but continues to launch attacks there as well as in Kenya, killing at least 67 people at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in 2013 and massacring 148 people at a university in Garissa last April.
