Monday, 7th November 20119:22:23pm
EXCLUSIVE: US Deploys Satellites To Help Kenya Army Locate Al Shabaab Fighters' Positions
*JACKAL NEWS – *The United States military has re-aligned its satellites to provide Kenyen military with the precise location of Somali Al-Shabaab fighters, a clear indication that the world community is determined to wipe out the insurgents who have wrecked havoc in the region, sources told the Jackal News.
This is a classic scenario of two allies fighting a common enemy.
But Kenya, a US regional ally, was non-committal. “No comment. The government will not comment on that for now,” government spokesman Alfred Mutua told the Jackal News in Nairobi.
This intelligence information will assist Kenyan troops -- who are currently inside Somalia – to target the insurgents who provoked the usually reticent Kenya by infiltrating and kidnapping at least four women and taking them into the lawless country.
Reports said that Kenyan tanks and aircrafts were will 100 kimometres into Somalia, bombing several locations believed to be rebel hideout, but it was not clear on the fatalities. Somali rebels urged Nairobi to pullback its troops, warning that they would fight back to the last man.
Over the weekend, a Kenyan chopper went down near the Somali frontier, killing five soldiers. Officials said it was an accident, but Somali rebels said they had taken it down.
This is not the first time US intelligence assists in the war against Al-Shabaab. In 2006, the United States military used its satellite intelligence to help Ethiopian troops locate Islamist rebels who had been ousted from Mogadishu, but the move was short-lived since the Ethiopians pulled out of the capital and the insurgents stampeded back.
In addition, the sources said US forces believed to be working out at a secret Camp *Simba*, a military base located in the Kenyan coastal region, might help the Kenyan forces in dealing with the common enemy.
Since 2007, US Special Forces have operated from the Kenyan base in addition to *Manda Bay* where they have been flying out and landing in southernmost Somalia, searching for foreign fighters and Al Qaeda operatives, in its campaign to eradicate terrorism from the the world. In June and September, US drones targeted positions in southern Somalia trying to kill Al Shabaab commander Hassan Al Turki.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous UN-backed attempts to restore a functional government in the nation of up to 10 million people.
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