WAR IN SOUTHERN SOMALIA:Kenya reports

Laaska news  Nov. 27,2011
“We are very sorry about the incident if indeed those killed were Kenyans. But we also have to ask ourselves why, if they were Kenyans, they refused to surrender when ordered to. All law-abiding citizens should support the government as security is not just for the police and the army,” – Oguna

Department of Defence’s Colonel Cyrus Oguna during a status briefing on the ‘Operation Linda Nchi’ at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Nairobi November 12, 2011. Kenyan soldiers and the Al-Shabaab militia are using locals in a bid to emerge victorious in the military operation in Somalia November 26, 2011 FILE- Nation.
Kenyan troops record major gains against Al-Shabaab .

By Ben Ochieng and Njoroge Kaburo

NAIROBI, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — Kenyan troops registered major gains this week against the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab in its major effort to degrade the capacity of the Al-Qaeda progeny.

Colonel Cyrus Oguna of the Kenya Defense Force said Al-Shabaab suffered major casualties in all the three sectors the Kenyan military is engaging them in.

“Week six of our operations saw intense bombing of Al-Shabaab targets aimed at degrading the militia’s operations during which they suffered high casualties and a number of their bases destroyed,” Oguna told journalists in Nairobi on Saturday.

He said there are Kenyans among the militants who have been killed, injured or arrested. He, however, said the Kenyan forces are not profiling those arrested for their nationalities but said that there are “foreigners” among those captured.

Oguna said the training camps that have been taken out in southern Somalia have the highest number of foreigners who have been recruited from Kenya and other neighboring countries.

“We took out five ‘technicals’ in and captured three Al-Shabaab fighters and recovered two AK rifles in Modaire after members of the local population spotted vehicles that were stuck in the mud and informed us,” said the spokesman, adding that the seized fighters were handed over to the TFG (Transitional Federal Government) forces.

He added that the militants have been moving from the camps that have been taken out and establishing new ones but the locals have been helping the Kenyan forces identify them.

Oguna said the Kenya Air Force also bombed Al-Shabaab bases in Amole and killed seven insurgents and injured many fighters at a camp the group has been using for training and radicalization of members of its unit.

He said the Kenya Navy on Friday intercepted two skiffs and arrested their occupants who are currently in police custody and undergoing interrogation, in its efforts of consolidating the maritime environment.

Oguna said contrary to common belief that the operation is slow, the army has been moving from door-to-door to flush out the bad elements as well as pacifying the liberated areas by taking care of the needs of the local population through the provision of assistance.

“Modern warfare is unlike that of the Napoleonic times where whole armies would run over enemy territories without considering the plight of the inhabitants, so of who would bear the brunt of their brutality,” he said.

“It is important that the peace-loving Somalis be assisted since they have undergone told suffering in the hands of a brutish group.”

According to Oguna, Kenyan soldiers are gathering information on Al-Shabaab from the locals as they feed them to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Oguna said that they were receiving information on the location of the militants from the locals as they interacted with them. The official said they were aware that the militants were using the locals as human shields as well as weapon carriers.

Oguna revealed that so far five soldiers have died in the conflict, four from active combat and one due to a helicopter crash that happened during the operation’s infancy.

He said it is difficult to know the actual casualties Al- Shabaab has suffered because KDF (Kenya Defense Force) relies of the figures provided to them by the locals who he said are mostly afraid of speaking out openly, but gave the figure as “several hundreds”.

Oguna said the Kenya will not occupy the whole of Somalia and will move out immediately as soon as its mission has been accomplished.

Deputy Director at the ministry of foreign affairs in charge of the Horn of Africa Lindsay Kipteness said that Kenya had embarked on a diplomatic offensive to seek more international support for the operation.

Kipteness said Kenya will use every international forum to lobby for support in its fight against Al-Shabaab, adding that the next such venue is the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Parliamentary Group Meeting in Lome, Togo where it will take its campaign.

He said that the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Head of States summit held in Addis Ababa on Friday had supported the operation and Kenya would now use the body’s organs to solicit more support from the international community.

“The presidents who spoke at the summit also expressed their understanding and support for the Kenyan operation. Kenya also said it was willing to join Amisom (African Union Mission in Somalia) forces as long as the mandate is changed to capture the current ongoings and allow the forces to move on the offensive,” Kipteness said.

He said the regional mediation body has its willingness to join the 9000-strong AMISOM force subject to certain conditions.

Kiptenes said during the IGAD Summit Kenya expressed willingness to bolster the African Union troops on condition that the forces’mandate is changed to reflect the security situation on the ground.

Currently, AMISOM’s mandate restricts it to operate only in Mogadishu as a peace-keeping force where it is providing security to the TFG led by President Sheikh Ahmed Sharif. Uganda and Burundi are the only countries that have contributed troops to the force.

“Kenya will prevail upon the African Union to change AMISOM’s mandate to allow it to go on the offensive as a precondition to joining the military outfit,” said Kiptenes upon returning from the meeting.

“The meeting also requested Ethiopia to support the fight against Al-Shabaab to ensure normalcy returns in Somalia,” he said.

Kenya is currently engaged in the fight against the militia group in southern Somalia where it has been registering impressive gains and extending humanitarian assistance to the local population.

The Foreign Affairs spokesman said IGAD also requested that Eritrea come out clean on it historical relations with Al-Shabaab of destabilizing the region before it can be re-admitted to the outfit.

He said Kenya has submitted two reports to the United Nations Security Council that point to Eritrea’s hostility and acts of destabilization in the Horn of Africa.

2011-11-26.

Xinhua.

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Al-Shabaab militants attack village in northern Kenya -Xinhua.

By Stephen Ingati and Christine Lagat

GARISSA, Kenya, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) — Suspected Al-Shabaab militants launched another daring attack on Friday night in Arabia village, 45 km south of Mandera town in Kenya and escaped with a rifle from the local police station before blowing up a communication mast.

Residents and witnesses in the area said nearly 40 militants armed with AK-47 rifles and bazookas entered the town from the Somali border in two groups with two Land Cruisers and fired at the Administration Police (AP) camp forcing the six officers attached to the post run away for their safety after realizing that they were out numbered.

The Somali militia group besieged the village for more than three hours and later left at their own volition realizing that they faced no challenge from Kenyan security.

The militants then escaped with a gun abandoned by the AP’s but did not leave the village before they made sure any outside communication was paralyzed by bombing the Safaricom mast located there and also dismantled the radio communication used by the local security officers.

A civic leader from the area, Hussein Aden Wiriq, told Xinhua on Saturday the attackers ransacked the deserted Administration Police line and even made away with several personal effects belonging to the officers but the armory was untouched.

Wiriq called on police to deploy more security officers in all the border locations including Arabia, Finno and Lafey that are susceptible to incursions by the militia group due to their proximity to the neighboring war-torn country.

“We call for more security reinforcements since the area is near Somalia where Al-Shabaab has been fighting with our troops,” Wiriq said.

On Thursday two separate attacks blamed on remnants of Al- Shabaab militant group hiding in the country killed a military and injured 11 others in Mandera while in Garissa, two simultaneous grenade attacks killed people and injured 15 others.

Regional police commander Leo Nyongesa confirmed the incident but said no casualties were reported following.

“All communication has been paralyzed but a security team has been sent there to look into all matters surrounding the attack,” Nyongesa told Xinhua by telephone.

Reports say the militants escaped to the Somalia village of Khadija Hajji, which is less than 25 km from the village of Arabia.

Mandera East lawmakers Mohammed Hussein Ali urged the government to beef up security along the Kenya-Somalia border to avert further incursions into the country by militant groups from the war ravaged country.

He wondered why the country’s military deployed along the border to fight Al-Shabaab cannot prevent frequent raids by the terror group inside Kenya.

The latest attack on communication and transport installations is a ploy by Al-Shabaab terror group to delay security responses whenever they attack.

Kenyan officials have blamed the hardline Al-Shabaab or their sympathizers for a spate of recent shootings and bombings, although armed bandits also operate in the border areas.

The extremist militia faces growing pressure as regional armies slowly encircle them, with Kenyan forces in the south, Ugandan and Burundian African Union forces in Mogadishu and Ethiopian troops in the west.

The conflict, however, comes at a cost for civilians caught up in the skirmishes.

The East African nation a has been plagued by a spate of grenade and landmine attacks since it launched cross border incursion into neighboring Somalia last month to pursue Al-Qaeda allied Al-Shabaab militant group.

2011-11-26

Xinhua.

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Troops use aid to gather intelligence – Nation
 

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Department of Defence’s Colonel Cyrus Oguna during a status briefing on the ‘Operation Linda Nchi’ at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Nairobi November 12, 2011. Kenyan soldiers and the Al-Shabaab militia are using locals in a bid to emerge victorious in the military operation in Somalia November 26, 2011 FILE

Kenyan troops and Al-Shabaab militia are both using locals to win the war in Somalia.

While the Kenyan troops are using humanitarian assistance to gain the confidence of Somalis as they gather intelligence on Al-Shabaab, the terror group is using the locals as human shields.

During the weekly briefing on Operation Linda Nchi on Saturday, it emerged that Kenyan soldiers are gathering information on Al-Shabaab from Somalis, and in the process the troops are feeding and giving them medical treatment to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said they were receiving information on the whereabouts of the militants from the locals as they interacted with them.

While defending the action by the military to feed the locals, Col Oguna dismissed claims from some NGOs that the operation had exacerbated the crisis in the Horn of Africa nation by interfering with humanitarian work.

“The needs of the local people are actually key as compared to the actual combat. Modern warfare has to also include humanitarian operations even as the soldiers pursue the militants,” Col Oguna said.

The spokesman also indicated that there were Kenyans among Al-Shabaab militants who had been killed, injured or arrested.

But he said Kenyan forces were not profiling those arrested.

Col Oguna said the Al-Shabaab training camps in the southern region that were broken up by Kenyan forces had the largest number of foreigners recruited from Kenya and other neighbouring countries.

He added that the militants have been moving from the camps and establishing new ones, but local Somalis have been helping the Kenyan forces identify them.

Col Oguna also revealed that a committee had been formed to investigate an incident in which fishermen said to be Kenyans were killed in the Indian Ocean by the Kenya military.

He said that the findings from the investigation would be made public.

“We are very sorry about the incident if indeed those killed were Kenyans. But we also have to ask ourselves why, if they were Kenyans, they refused to surrender when ordered to. All law-abiding citizens should support the government as security is not just for the police and the army,” he said.

Speaking at the same briefing, deputy director at Foreign Affairs division in charge of the Horn of Africa Lindsay Kiptiness said that Kenya had embarked on a diplomatic offensive to seek more international support for the operation.

He said the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development summit in Addis Ababa on Friday had backed the Kenyan operation, and Kenya would now use ,the body’s organs to solicit more support from the international community.

He said the Igad summit also asked Ethiopia to support Amison in Somalia and reiterated that Eritrea must come clean over past engagements with Al-Shabaab elements.

Nation.

Somalis take centre stage in Kenya Shabaab battle

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Kenyan soldiers and the Al-Shabaab militia are using locals in a bid to emerge victorious in the military operation in Somalia.

The Kenyan troops are using humanitarian assistance to endear the Somalis as they gather intelligence on the Al-Shabaab while the terror group is using the locals as human shields.

During the Saturday’s Operation Linda Nchi briefing, it emerged that the Kenyan soldiers are gathering information on the Al-Shabaab from the locals as they feed them to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Speaking at the briefing, military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said that they were receiving information on the whereabouts of the militants from the locals as they interacted with them. He also said that they had information that the militants were using the locals as human shields as well as weapon carriers.

While defending the action by the army to feed the locals, Col Oguna dismissed claims by NGOs that the operation had interfered with humanitarian work worsening the crisis in the Horn of Africa country.

“The needs of the local people are actually key as compared to the actual combat. Modern warfare has to also include humanitarian operations even as the soldiers pursue the militants,” said Col Oguna.

He indicated that there are Kenyans among the Al-Shabaab militants who have been killed, injured or arrested. He, however, said that the Kenyan forces are not profiling those arrested for their nationalities but said that there are “foreigners” among those captured.

Col Oguna said that the training camps that have been taken out in the Southern region have the highest number of foreigners who have been recruited from Kenya and other neighbouring countries.

He added that the militants have been moving from the camps that have been taken out and establishing new ones but the locals have been helping the Kenyan forces identify them.

Col Oguna also revealed that a committee had been formed to probe an incident in which fishermen thought to be Kenyans were killed in the Indian Ocean by the Kenya Defence Forces. He said that the findings from the investigations will be made public.

“We are very sorry about the incident if indeed those killed were Kenyans. But we also have to ask ourselves that if they were Kenyans, why they refused to surrender when asked to. All law abiding citizens should support the government as security is not just for the police and the army,” said Col Oguna.

Speaking at the same briefing, Deputy Director at Foreign affairs division in charge of the Horn of Africa Lindsay Kipteness said that Kenya had embarked on a diplomatic offensive to seek more international support for the operation.

He said that the Inter-governmental Authority on Development Head of States summit held in Addis Ababa on Friday had backed the operation and Kenya would now use the body’s organs to solicit more support from the international community.

“The presidents who spoke at the summit also expressed their understanding and support for the Kenyan operation. Kenya also said it was willing to join Amisom forces as long as the mandate is changed to capture the current ongoings and allow the forces to move on the offensive,” Mr Kipteness said.

According to Col Oguna, in the last week, the Kenyan forces have killed at least 15 Al-Shabaab operatives and injured others in the offensive especially in the south.

He added that since the operation started, KDF has lost four soldiers through enemy fire, five others died in a helicopter crash at the beginning of the operation and 11 soldiers are currently in hospital.

Col Oguna also confirmed that one soldier had died during the Mandera grenade on Thursday where a KDF lorry drove over a landmine and was blown up. (READ: Kenyan soldier dies in Mandera landmine explosion)

He added that the four other soldiers who were injured during the incident are now at the Forces Memorial Hospital.

  Nation.

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Military probing fishermen deaths

By:Carol Gakii/Margaret Kalekye,    Sat, Nov 26, 2011

 
 
 
The Kenya Defence Forces -KDF has constituted a special committee to look into claims that Kenyan fishermen were killed by the Kenya Navy during an attack on the seas early this month.

Head of KDF operations Colonel Cyrus Oguna Saturday said the 11 individuals were killed after they defied orders to surrender.

Speaking to journalists during a briefing on “Operation Linda Nchi” Col Oguna assured Kenyans that the committee will expedite its investigations and findings will be made public as soon as possible. 

He also warned maritime operators from venturing into waters declared a no-go zone in the Indian Ocean due to the military offensive going on in Somalia.

“We are very sorry about the incident if indeed those killed were Kenyans. But we also have to ask ourselves that if they were Kenyans, why they refused to surrender when asked to. All law abiding citizens should support the government as security is not just for the police and the army,”he said.

Some families in Mombasa claim that the Kenyans were on a fishing expedition when they were confronted by the Kenya Navy. 

Humanitarian aid

Oguna further said the troops were involved in humanitarian aid operations adding that they had received support from the locals to fight the militants.

He said the troops are receiving information on the whereabouts of the militants from the locals adding that they also have information’s that Al Shabaab was using the locals as weapon carriers.

Col Oguna dismissed claims by NGOs that the operation had interfered with humanitarian work in Somalia.

“The needs of the local people are actually key as compared to the actual combat. Modern warfare has to also include humanitarian operations even as the soldiers pursue the militants,” said Col Oguna.

He added that since the operation started six weeks ago, Kenya had lost nine soldiers , five of them in a helicopter crash at the beginning of the operation. He said  11 soldiers are currently in hospital while one is missing.

The latest fatality is a soldier who died in Mandera on Thursday when land mine exploded on a KDF lorry drove.

Four other soldiers who were injured during the incident are admitted at the Forces Memorial Hospital.

Speaking at the same briefing, Deputy Director at Foreign affairs division in charge of the Horn of Africa Lindsay Kipteness said Kenya will use the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which has backed the offensive to lobby for more support for its war against the Al Shabaa.

He further said Kenya had agreed to send troops to join  Amisom as long as the organ works to address the real issues on the ground in Somalia

KBC News.

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Garissa’s grenade attacks claim six

Written By:Caro Gakii,    Fri, Nov 25, 2011

 
 
 
The death toll in Thursday’s twin grenade attacks in Garissa has risen to six after three more people succumbed to injuries sustained in the blasts.

Garissa Provincial General Hospital medical superintendent Dr. Musa Mohamed says two other people are currently fighting for their lives while 11 others who sustained moderate injuries are receiving medical attention at the facility.

Dr Mohamed said the hospital received 34 people of whom three were children adding that 15 of them were treated and discharged as they suffered minor injuries.

The simultaneous explosions occurred at 7pm in a restaurant popularly known as Kwa Chege while another blast hit a shopping centre on Ngamia road near the Garissa district headquarters offices.

Meanwhile one of the Kenya Defence Forces soldiers who was among the 5 injured after a vehicle they were travelling in was blown up in a landmine explosion in Mandera is still in critical condition.

Major Emmanuel Chirchir said the soldier is receiving treatment at the Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi while three others are still admitted at Garissa District Hospital.

One soldier died on Thursday while being airlifted to Nairobi for specialized treatment
 

KBC News.

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