Kenya’s military stormed across the border on Sunday to support Somali government troops in a risky attempt to secure the frontier and its hinterland. The operation follows a wave of kidnappings by suspected militants that have threatened the East African country’s key tourism industry.
A Kenyan military spokesman said Kenyan and Somali government troops had killed 73 rebels during fighting.
“We killed the 73 rebels during our artillery bombardment operations and so far the military has secured three towns… no casualties were reported on the Kenyan side,” Emmanuel Chirchir told Reuters in Nairobi.
“The operation will continue as the troops are ready and prepared for anything,” he said, although he admitted heavy rains were hampering troops from advancing further towards the al Qaeda-linked rebels.
A senior Somali commander said the operation’s aim was to rid Kismayu, a port city that serves as al Shabaab’s nerve centre for operations, of the militants.
“We are determined to cleanse al Shabaab from Kismayu and then from all of Somalia,” General Yusuf Hussein Dumaal, head of government troops in southern Somalia, told Reuters by phone from Taabto village on Wednesday.
“We hope it will not take us a week to capture Lower Juba region particularly Kismayu,” he said.