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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Witnesses say dozens killed in al-Shabaab attack on Kenyan troops |
| 2017-01-28 |
| [Guardian] Witnesses have confirmed claims that Islamic militants killed dozens of Kenyan troops in an attack on a remote military base in Somalia. A spokesman for al-Shabaab, which has been fighting an insurgency in Somalia for more than a decade, said on Friday morning that its fighters had killed at least 57 Kenyans deployed with a regional peacekeeping mission at the base in Kulbiyow, near the Kenyan border. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told the Reuters news agency that the group was still pursuing "the Kenyan soldiers who ran away into the woods" after the attack. He described how two fighters had driven suicide car bombs into the Kulbiyow base before others stormed it, killing the soldiers and seizing vehicles and weapons. "We have taken over the base," he said. Kenyan military officials dismissed the claims as "completely false". Kenya’s defence ministry said militants had attacked the base using two car bombs, but it added: "[Kenyan] soldiers repulsed the terrorists, killing scores ... Currently an intensive pacification operation is under way reinforced by our air and land forces." |
| Posted by:Besoeker |