l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
faceless myrmidons within 100 kilometres of the border.
Units from the Kenya Army are understood to have crossed into Somalia at Liboi and Mandera with orders to fight their way into the lawless country and create a buffer zone to ensure that gunnies do not launch attacks against Kenya.
Kenya Air Force and the Navy will be sent out as the need arises, security sources told the Nation.
Soldiers actually crossed into Somalia days before the announcement by Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and Defence Minister Yusuf Haji. (READ: Kenya declares war on Al-Shabaab)
Internal Security permanent secretary Francis Kimemia said security forces had drawn up strategies to defeat al-Shabaab in their own land.
"How it will be done, the number of troops involved and where they will strike remains a preserve of the military. We can't give information that would be useful to the enemy," he said.
Witnesses have reported military trucks at border points and military choppers in the air. Foreign troops are already on the ground in Somalia, mainly from Uganda and Burundi, under the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
The Federal Transitional Government, the weak authority in Somalia backed by the international community, also has troops trained in Kenya and Uganda and paid for by western donors.
"Now we can't wait for the TFG or Amisom. Article 51 of the UN charter allows us to pursue them. It allows you to hit anybody who hits you or is planning to hit you.
"And also allows you to pursue those who have hit and bravely ran away," Mr Kimemia said.
Kenya has been under sustained provocation from al-Shabaab for months, with the al-Qaeda-linked group raiding across the border and, last Thursday, kidnapping two Spanish aid workers at the Daadab refugee camp. (READ: Two Spaniards kidnapped in Kenya likely in Somalia)
French woman Marie Dedieu was kidnapped on Manda Island on October 1 while Mrs Judith Tebbutt, a Briton, was kidnapped and her husband David rubbed out at Kiwayu resort in Kiunga in September.
In all incidents, those captured were taken to Somalia and are being held in al-Shabaab bases. Prof Saitoti announced the decision to send troops to Somalia in a presser on Saturday. He branded Somalia's al-Qaeda-inspired al-Shabaab rebels "the enemy" and vowed to attack them "wherever they will be."