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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Monday, October 17, 2011

Kenya invades Somalia to stop Islamic Terrorism


Kenyan troops crossed the Somali border to attack the
al-Shabaab faction, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda.

Islamic Terrorism:  "Our country (Kenya) is threatened with the most serious level of terrorism"


Kenya launched a military incursion against an Islamist militant group in Somalia on Sunday in retaliation for a wave of kidnappings of foreigners that has blighted its tourism industry.

Witnesses said Kenyan troops crossed the border to an operations point 60 miles inside Somali territory, preparing for raids on the al-Shabaab faction, a terrorist outfit linked to al-Qaeda.

There were reports of large troop movements in Kenya's border regions, with truckloads of soldiers heading towards the frontier, backed by military planes and helicopters overhead reports the UK Telegraph.

George Saitoti, the East African country's minister of internal security, said the border would be closed.

Kenyan troops were preparing unprecedented armed raids on the militants inside Somalia.

Al-Shabaab aims to topple the government in Mogadishu and establish Sharia.

Al-Shabaab warned Kenyan soldiers, as they crossed the frontier to attack insurgent strongholds, that they would feel the “pain of bullets”.

“Kenya violated the territorial rights of Somalia by entering our holy land, but I assure you that they will return disappointed, God willing,” said Sheikh Hassan Turki, a senior Shabaab leader. “Mujahideen fighters will force them to test the pain of the bullets.”

Kenyan and Somali troops had reportedly already driven Shabaab militants from two bases near the Kenyan border on Sunday night.

The murder of a British man and the kidnap of his wife, and the seizing of a French woman and two Spanish aid workers, all by armed gunmen in little over a month, has left Kenya little option but to take action against Somali gangs.

David Tebbutt, from Bishop's Stortford, was shot dead and his wife Judith, 56, is being held by pirates in central Somalia after the attack on their holiday beach hut in Kiwayu.

Armed gunmen seized Marie Dedieu, a disabled 66-year-old French woman, just over two weeks ago at her holiday home nearby, on one of the islands off Lamu, 60 miles south of the border.

On Thursday, two Spanish aid workers were kidnaped from the Dabaab refugee camp, which has accepted hundreds of thousands of Somalis seeking aid amid a drought currently blighting the Horn of Africa.

Mr Saitoti said that al-Shabaab militants were behind the attacks and Kenya would take decisive action against the group.

"For the first time our country is threatened with the most serious level of terrorism," he said.

For more on this story

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was long awaited cross border by Kenyan government, because part a of Aricacom US policy which aims to use African states namely, Ethiopia, Uganda and others as a means to achieve US policy objective n the region. Kenya rightly kept out to embroil in Somali conflict at least directly for sometime, sadly this policy shift by Kenya will only lead to protracted war and nobody knows how and when it will end.

AH Hassan

Gary said...

Wake up Hassan. Somalis are crossing the border killing and kidnapping tourists in Keyna.