Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen says its fighters on firuday launched an attack on a Kenyan military base in southern Somalia.
Al-Shabaab, a jihadist group that controls swathes of the Somali countryside, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they launched rocket-propelled grenades [RGPs] towards the camp and “killed several Kenyan soldiers”.
An army base run by Kenyan defense Forces [KDF] in Qoqani area near Afmadow town was struck by an ambush assault from different directions with reports that heavy gunfire and explosions could be heard. Al shabaab propaganda media has reported.
Kenya’s ministry of defense has not commented on the latest attack on KDF base outside the Afmadow district in Lower Jubba region, which its control falls under the Jubaland state of Somalia.
If confirmed, this will be the first time that al-Shabab fighters have attacked a Kenyan military base in Somalia this year.
The country contributes more than 3,600 troops to the Africa Union Mission in Somalia [AMISOM] helping the UN-backed governments tackle insecurity and fight against Al-Shabaab militants.
KDF suffered the most deadly attacks by Al-Shabaab militants, who carried out an attack on a Kenyan-run AMISOM army base in the town of El Adde in Gedo region on 15 January 2016, killing hundreds of soldiers.
The El-Adde attack was staged on January 15, 2016, as KDF soldiers continued with their offensive against the militants inside Somalia.
The 2016 attack saw the terrorists run over their military camp and butcher KDF soldiers working under the Amisom command in one of the country’s darkest battleground losses.
Kenya suffered its largest-ever military casualties at the battle of El Adde in the Gedo region of Somalia.
Early this year Leaders in Somalia are questioning the recent abandonment of a military base in the country by Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers, saying the move will expose the country to Al-Shabaab threats.
The leaders say Kenyan troops started withdrawing from Somalia after moving out of Busar, KDF’s command centre in the northern sector of Jubaland, a town that was liberated in the first 100 days of their entry into Somalia.
Kenyan forces went into Somalia under the Operation Linda Nchi which was seen as an invasion – covering the entry of Kenyan military forces into southern Somalia beginning in 2011.
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