The Somali Islamist extremist group al-Shabab says it captured some Kenyan soldiers during last week’s attack on an African Union peacekeeping base in southwestern Somalia.
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Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Al Shabab militants stormed an African Union base manned by Kenyan troops in the country’s southwest on Friday, with several killed in fierce gun battles.
The armed group, which has ties with al-Qaida, opposes Kenyas military involvement in Somalia and describes Kenyan peacekeepers as invaders.
On Sunday four injured soldiers were returned to Nairobi.
Shebab spokesman Shebab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu Musab claimed to have killed 63 Kenyan troops in the pre-dawn attack, but this could not be immediately verified.
“They are not injured, they are just traumatised”, Defence Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo said at the airport.
Nakuru residents have been faulted for posting on the social media photos purporting to be of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers who died in Somalia on Friday.
AMISOM and Kenyan forces had said Al-Shabab attacked a Somali National Army base and AMISOM forces counter-attacked.
In a statement Sunday, al-Shabab claimed the number of dead Kenyan troops had risen to 100.
The Swedes fought against US-funded African Union forces in Somalia, prosecutors said.
The military camp which the attacker attacked is located about 550 km from the Kenyan border in Mogadishu’s south west Ceel Cedo district.
The Prime Minister also stressed that the cowardly terrorist attack by Al Shabab will not deter nor hamper the government’s astute plan in eliminating and eradicating the remnants of the terrorist group from the whole country.
A Somali military official confirmed the militants had taken over the base.
“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 North East and the Coastal regions”, it said.
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“Bring back our daughters”, proclaimed James Habwe while tagging the post to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
