Al-Shabaab threatens Kenya as troops cross into Somalia

Kenyan troops launched an offensive with Somali forces in southern Somalia at the weekend in a risky attempt to secure the border and end a series of kidnappings that have hit Kenya’s reputation among tourists and investors.

The Kenyan military said the operation, involving air and ground raids, was going well, but the al-Qaeda-linked militants, who have wrested control of much of Somalia from a weak internationally backed interim government and warlords, threatened to retaliate.

“Kenyan troops have entered 100km into Somalia and their planes bombarded many places and killed residents,” al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said. He warned them: “We shall come into Kenya if you do not go back.”

Residents in southern Somalia said both sides were heading towards the town of Afmadow, a rebel stronghold until air strikes on Sunday on nearby rebel camps dislodged their grip.

A Kenyan military officer based in Liboi, a border post on the frontier about 75 miles to the west of Afmadow, said the joint military operation had made progress, driving al-Shabaab away from the border area.

“Our team inside Somalia is doing well. So far, we have uprooted al-Shabaab from Dhobley after the air and ground raids,” he said, referring to the Somali district across the border. “We are working with other friendly armed groups … to fight the common enemy, al-Shabaab.”

Abdinasir Serar, a senior commander in the Ras Kamboni militia allied to the Somali government, said: “We are near Afmadow which we are waiting to capture in the coming hours.”

Afmadow town elder Abdi Gaboobe said the militants had deployed fighters around the city and were digging trenches in anticipation of a clash, while another resident said hundreds of fighters were seen hiding in jungles surrounding the town.

Earlier yesterday, a resident in the village of Qoqani, between the border and Afmadow, confirmed Kenyan troop movements in the area.

In the southern port city of Kismayu, the nerve centre of al-Shabaab’s southern operations, locals said the insurgents were heading north of the road to Afmadow to confront the advancing Kenyan and Somali troops.

Ismail Aden said: “All al-Shabaab’s fighters and their armed vehicles in Kismayu have taken the road towards Afmadow. People are afraid here.”

As columns of al-Shabaab technicals – open-backed 4x4 vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns – raced towards Afmadow, the militants warned Kenya to pull its troops out of Somalia or face retribution.

In a statement, its spokesman Mr Rage said: “Do not let the flames of this war spill over into your country.”

Kenya has blamed al-Shabaab for the abduction of two Spanish aid workers last week from Dadaab, the world’s biggest refugee camp, which lies close to the border with Somalia.

Mr Rage dismissed the accusation and said the militants were also not responsible for the recent kidnapping of a disabled French woman and British holiday maker Judith Tebbutt from the north Kenyan coast in two separate incidents.

He said: “Kenyan troops have entered Somalia under the pretext of chasing hostages. Al-Shabaab is not behind any abductions.”

Security sources say the British and French women are being held in territory controlled by al-Shabaab in central Somalia, highlighting co-operation between the militants and criminal networks such as pirates who hijack vessels for ransom.

East Africa’s biggest economy has long looked nervously at its anarchic neighbour and its troops have made brief incursions into Somali territory in the past. The latest operation risks dragging Kenya deeper into Somalia’s two-decade civil war and drawing retaliatory attacks on Kenyan interests by al-Shabaab.

Keen to avoid a spillover of violence by al-Qaeda-trained foreign jihadists seeking haven in Somalia, as well as al-Shabaab rebels entrenched in the south, Nairobi has in the past contemplated creating a buffer zone along its border.

Kenya has already trained thousands of newly recruited Somali soldiers to man the frontier. It also provides logistical and intelligence support to Somali government troops and government-friendly militia