Kenya jets 'kill 80 militants'

24 June 2014 - 02:02 By Reuters
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Soldiers belonging to the AU Mission in Somalia stand guard during an operation in the Wardhiigley district of Mogadishu, in an attempt to weed out members of the Al-Shabab extremist group
Soldiers belonging to the AU Mission in Somalia stand guard during an operation in the Wardhiigley district of Mogadishu, in an attempt to weed out members of the Al-Shabab extremist group
Image: TOBIN JONES/REUTERS

Kenyan fighter jets have attacked two bases belonging to Islamist al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia and killed at least 80 militants, African Union peacekeepers said yesterday.

Al-Shabab rebels denied any of its fighters had been killed.

The AU Mission in Somalia, whose soldiers launched a new offensive against al-Shabab this year, said Kenyan planes carried out the raids on Anole and Kuday in the southern Lower Jubba region. It did not say when they took place.

"The air strikes in Anole left more than 30 al-Shabab fighters dead, and three technical vehicles and one Land Cruiser loaded with ammunition destroyed," the AU mission said.

More than 50 rebels were killed in the Kuday raid, it added.

But al-Shabab's spokesman for military operations Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said the group did not have any bases in the area of the raids, which it said took place on Thursday.

"Only pastoralists were around there and luckily no goat was injured, let alone a civilian," Musab said.

Kenya first sent its troops into neighbouring Somalia in 2011 after several attacks inside its territory that it blamed on al-Shabab, and later joined the peacekeeping force.

The militants have since carried out a string of assaults to punish Kenya for its intervention.

Al-Shabab fighters killed at least 67 people in a raid on a Nairobi shopping mall last year.

The AU mission said al-Shabab had lost control of more than 10 major towns in the new push by African troops, including soldiers from Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Burundi and Sierra Leone.

Officials added towns cleared of al-Shabab are in a dire state, with food stocks emptied and largely abandoned by their inhabitants, creating what one envoy described as "ghost towns''.

In a separate incident, an al-Shabab spokesman said the group had attacked Kenyan troops near the border with Kenya yesterday morning and had burned four trucks, killing those inside.

Kenya's defence forces denied there was any such fight.

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