A top Kenyan commander said on Sunday the army was conducting “search and rescue” operations without specifically saying if they were looking for captured soldiers.
Advertisement
The group, which did not say how many soldiers were held after Friday’s assault in El Adde, also said in a statement that more than 100 Kenyan soldiers were killed, revising up the number from the more than the 63 dead it had previously claimed.
A Kenyan soldier, center, who Kenya Defence Forces said was injured in the attack by al-Shabab in Somalia earlier this week, is assisted by Cabinet Secretary for Defence Raychelle Omamo, center-right, as he walks with a drip after being airlifted back to Nairobi for medical treatment, in Kenya Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016.
NAIROBI, Kenya The bodies of at least four Kenyan soldiers slain by Somali Islamic extremists arrived in the Kenyan capital on Monday. “We have engaged the enemy and severely degraded him”, he added.
Bonny Khalwale has told the government to withdraw the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers from Somalia. If the death toll is confirmed, it would be the highest number of casualties Kenya’s military has suffered in a single incident since its troops invaded southern Somalia in October 2011.
Mwathethe said Al-Shabaab raided the camp in three vehicles loaded with explosives, noting that the KDF priority is pursuing the attackers behind the Friday ambush.
Despite being pushed out of Somalia’s major towns, al-Shabab continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks across the Horn of Africa country.
Al Shabaab said the attack was in retaliation for the Kenyan “invasion of Muslim lands”.
Fighters from the group exchanged gunfire with AU peacekeepers according to a Somali military official.
“We will stand with the government and all civilized people in not only condemning but fighting them and their evil deeds at all levels”, said a statement from SUPKEM.
Advertisement
The timing of Khalwale’s pronouncement coincided with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s assurance that KDF soldiers will stay in Somalia.
