Breaking News
Login
Pan African Visions

Kenya Jets Target Militants After Group Says 100 Soldiers Killed

January 18, 2016

  • Militants using captured Kenyan soldiers as human shields
  • Defense secretary says `company-size' force affected in attack
By * [caption id="attachment_24908" align="alignleft" width="586"]An injured Kenya Defence Force soldiers is helped steps out a plane prior to be transfered to a hospital after arriving in Nairobi following an attack by the Al-Qaeda-linked militants last week that killed over 100 Kenyan soldiers in a January 15 attack on an African Union base. Photographer: John Muchucha/AFP/Getty Images An injured Kenya Defence Force soldiers is helped steps out a plane prior to be transfered to a hospital after arriving in Nairobi following an attack by the Al-Qaeda-linked militants last week that killed over 100 Kenyan soldiers in a January 15 attack on an African Union base. Photographer: John Muchucha/AFP/Getty Images[/caption] Kenya’s military carried out air raids on al-Qaeda-linked militants in southwestern Somalia after an attack on an African Union military base Jan. 15 in which the Islamists said at least 100 Kenyan soldiers died. The Kenya Defence Forces used both land and air forces in response to the attack on the El Adde base in Somalia’s Gedo region near the Kenyan border, Samson Mwathathe, the head of Kenya’s military, said in a statement published Sunday on the Ministry of Interior’s website. The operation is “delicate” because some Kenyan soldiers have been captured and are being used as human shields, he said. “As we speak right now our troops are engaging the terrorists,” Mwathathe said. “We have information to the effect that some soldiers are being used as human shields and we will not allow any further casualties.”
Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group that has been fighting Somalia’s government for a decade, said it killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers and captured 12 others in the Jan. 15 attack. 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.
The African Union is still verifying the number of casualties and Kenyan authorities haven’t specified how many of its soldiers died. The El Adde attack was carried out by suicide bombers using improvised explosive devices on vehicles and “the soldiers affected by the attack are a company-size force,” Defence Secretary Raychelle Omamo said in a separate statement on the Ministry of Interior’s website. In the U.S. military, a company has 100 to 200 soldiers, according to the U.S. Army’s website. *Bloomberg

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pan African Visions
IFIF 2016 to Address Regulatory Challenges to Accelerate Development of Islamic Finance in Africa
January 18, 2016 Prev
Pan African Visions
Niger moves nearly 100 schools away from Boko Haram threat: UN
January 18, 2016 Next