Kenya to stay in Somalia as long as necessary: army chief
NAIROBI — Kenya has vowed to keep troops in Somalia as long as needed to stop attacks on its soil by the Islamist group Al-Shebab, which hit an AU peacekeepers compound in Mogadishu on Saturday.
"When the Kenyan government and the people of this country feel they are safe enough we shall pull back," the country's military chief General Julius Karangi told journalists Saturday, refusing to put a timeline on the operation.
Kenya sent an undisclosed number of troops into southern Somalia two weeks ago to fight that Al-Qaeda-linked rebels it blames for a spate of kidnappings of foreigners on Kenyan soil.
Meanwhile the Shebab attacked African Union peacekeepers using two suicide bombers in the Somali capital, the AU mission (AMISOM) there said in a statement, without indicating any casualties among their troops.
But the Shebab claimed their fighters stormed the AMISOM compound, "killing 80 Ugandan troops," the group said in a statement sent to AFP.
On the same day Kenya's Defence Minister Yusuf Haji said that the anti-Shebab forces in Somalia will soon be strengthened by a boost in the AU force, which currently stands at 9,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops.
The UN Security Council has authorised AMISOM, set up in 2007, to have a total of 12,000 troops but this is also set to increase.
"As you know Uganda and Burundi are going to increase (their participation) by 4,000 and Djibouti is going to increase by 1,000," Haji said.
"On the 15th (of November) the heads of state of IGAD will be meeting," Haji said, referring to the Intergovernmental Development Authority, that groups together Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan and Somalia.
"That is when we'll be able to tell you concretely which countries are going to contribute," he went on.
Haji also said a Somali delegation will visit Kenya on Sunday to discuss divisions in Somali power circles over Kenya's intervention in the south.
Karangi Saturday made clear that Kenya's operation was limited, launched in response to what he described as a Shebab aggression despite the militia's denial of any involvement in the recent abduction of several foreigners in Kenya.
"We acted as a country on the spur of the moment," he said. "At no point did we plan to enter Somalia and annex territory there."
Officials present at the briefing dismissed earlier reports by other Kenyan officials that the government was ready to negotiate with the Shebab.
"We will not negotiate with criminal terrorist groups," Francis Kimemia, permanent secretary at the internal security ministry said.
But as Kenyan troops make slow progress against Islamist rebels, experts and officials are warning of the risk of revenge attacks from home-grown militants back home.
Two grenade blasts earlier this week in Nairobi killed one person and wounded dozens of others.
Another four people meanwhile were killed by a rocket propelled grenade near the Somali border, an attack also blamed on Shebab fighters.
A 28-year old man from western Kenya was sentenced to life imprisonment Friday for his role in the grenade attacks and being a member of the Shebab. The police said he had been trained in Somalia earlier this year.
Even if Kenya was able to smash rebel bases in Somalia, Nairobi should also be worried about threats "already present deep inside the country," said J. Peter Pham of the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
Attacking Shebab bases in Somalia raised the "risk of ?sleeper cells? or even self-radicalised ?lone wolf? sympathisers to respond by carrying out attacks within Kenya," Pham added.
On Thursday, top Shebab commander Mukhtar Robow Ali called on Kenyan operatives to launch attacks.
"Now is the time to act", he said. "There is a need to make a huge explosion."
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