https://www.yahoo.com/news/somalias-al-shabaab-says-kills-dozens-kenyan-troops-092522831.html
Somalia's al Shabaab says kills dozens of Kenyan troops in raid on base
By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar
ReutersJanuary 27, 2017
By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The Islamist group al Shabaab said its fighters
killed dozens of Kenyan troops when they attacked a remote military base in
Somalia on Friday, while Kenya's army dismissed the report and said
"scores" of militants were killed.
A spokesman for al Shabaab, which often launches attacks on troops of the
African Union's AMISOM force, said its fighters killed at least 66 Kenyans
at the base in the southern town of Kulbiyow, near the Kenyan border.
Al Shabaab said it lost fighters but did not give numbers.
Kenyan military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Njuguna denied the claim
that al Shabaab had killed dozens of soldiers but did not give any casualty
figures.
In a statement, he said al Shabaab attackers used a vehicle packed with
explosives to try to blast their way into the camp of the Kenya Defence
Forces (KDF). "KDF soldiers repulsed the terrorists, killing scores," he
said.
Njuguna said the attack was launched around dawn on Friday.
In January 2016, al Shabaab said it had killed more than 100 Kenyan
soldiers in El Adde, a Somali camp near the border with Kenya. The military
never gave details of casualties, but Kenya media reports suggested a toll
of that magnitude.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operation spokesman, had
told Reuters al Shabaab fighters rammed two suicide car bombs into the base
and seized it. "We are pursuing the Kenyan soldiers who ran away into the
woods," he said.
Al Shabaab, whose assessment of casualties often differs markedly from
official versions, typically rams the entrance to a target site with a car
or truck bomb so fighters can storm in.
The Islamist group, which once ruled much of Somalia, wants to topple the
Western-backed government in Mogadishu and drive out the peacekeeping force
made up of soldiers from Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Ethiopia and other
African countries.
Al Shabaab has been fighting for years to impose its strict interpretation
of Islam on Somalia.
African Union and Somali troops have driven its fighters from major urban
strongholds and ports, including the capital Mogadishu in 2011, but they
have often struggled to defend smaller, more remote areas from attacks.
(Additional reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Writing by Aaron
Maasho and Edmund Blair; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Received on Sat Jan 28 2017 - 11:46:59 EST