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| A section of Kenya Defence Forces serving in Somalia under AMISOM |
Seventy-three suspected Al-Shabaab
militants were killed in a clash with the Kenya Defence Forces in Fafadun area
Somalia that also left two soldiers dead.
The military said the incident
happened after a group of the militants tried to attack a KDF camp on Wednesday
August 15. Three other KDF soldiers were injured and have since been flown to
Nairobi for specialized treatment.
During the attack, KDF soldiers said
they recovered 40 AK47 rifles and destroyed six lorries belonging to the
militants.
Department of Defence headquarters
in Nairobi said they were aware of the incident but referred us to the Amisom
offices for further details.
“It is true more than 70 militants
have been killed in a clash that also left three of our soldiers dead,” said
one senior official at DOD.
This comes at a time when the
long-planned assault on Somalia’s southern port town of Kismayu by the Kenya
Defence Forces and their Amisom allies is probably only days away in what will
be a decisive week for Somalia.
The African Union force, which also
includes Kenyan and Burundian troops, is planning an onslaught on Somalia's
second biggest city Kismayu, which is a hub for the Islamist militants, before
August 20.
The KDF troops crossed to Somalia
last October to hunt down the militants who are being blamed over several
insecurity incidents in North Eastern and Coast provinces.
The latest killings of the militants
is the highest number to be marked since then. Some remnants of the rag tag
group have been attacking locals in a series of incidents that left dozens dead
and injured in Mombasa, North Eastern and Nairobi.
The troops who are operating in
Somalia are planning a final assault on Kismayu this weekend to unseat the
militants from the port, which serves as the main source of their revenue.
Seven Ugandan troops died at the
weekend after their choppers crashed on Mt Kenya as they flew to Somalia for
war with the militants Al-Shabaab.
Bad weather was initially blamed for
the crash that happened on Sunday evening. The choppers were part of a fleet of
four that was headed for Baidoa when they went missing. While one made it to
Garissa as scheduled three went missing.
Experts said initial findings
pointed to pilot error and bad weather as the cause that led to the crash even
as the search for the two others went on.
Meanwhile rescuers recovered five
more bodies of the missing Ugandan soldiers on Mt Kenya at the burnt chopper.
This brought to seven, the number of
bodies so far recovered from the Russian made chopper that crashed on Sunday as
it raced to Somalia for war with al-Shabaab militants.
The rescuers had on Tuesday
recovered two bodies and sighted a third one on Wednesday but could not remove
it because of bad weather.
Yesterday, Kenyan military spokesman
Bogita Ongeri said the team had accessed the site and removed the bodies and
were preparing to airlift the burnt bodies to Nairobi.
The rescuers who include officials
from the military, police, Kenya Wildlife Services, Kenya Forest and locals had
arrived at the scene for the third time since the incident happened.
“The bodies are being loaded into
body bags before they are brought to Nairobi for preservation and later be
taken to their country,” said Ongeri.
Ongeri said there were seven
soldiers in the chopper and all were killed after it burst into flames on
crashing. He added investigations will be conducted on the cause of the crash
as ordered by authorities.
Ongeri said plans were being made to
take aviation experts to the scene of the crash before they remove the
wreckages of the three choppers.
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has
formed a team to investigate the incident while President Kibaki has pledged to
help in knowing the cause of the crash.
Bad weather was initially blamed for
the crash that happened on Sunday evening. The three choppers were part of a
fleet of four that was headed for Baidoa when they went missing. While one made
it to Garissa as scheduled three went missing.
One of the choppers was sited on
Monday morning and seven soldiers rescued before they were taken to the Nanyuki
air strip. The soldiers had sent a signal to the Department of Defence
headquarters for help.
The other two were sighted on
Tuesday.
One Mi-24 attack helicopter
crash-landed in Castle Forest, about 14 kilometres from Kimunye Forest Service
in Mt. Kenya.
Experts said initial findings
pointed to pilot error and bad weather as the cause that led to the crash even
as the search for the two others went on.
Officials said the pilots were new
to the terrain and may have followed a wrong route and ran into turbulent
weather in the mountain.
Questions were being raised as to
why and how all the three crashed nearly the same area and time and why it took
long for them to be located or the incident to be realized.
Initial findings said the four
choppers with 28 crew left a base in Soroti in Eastern Uganda Sunday for
Eldoret.
They were then scheduled to land in
Nanyuki for refueling before heading for Garissa and Wajir.
Reports said the choppers arrived in
Nanyuki at 4pm and later left for Garissa where they were expected at about 6
pm.
But only helicopter number Mi17 that
landed successfully in Garissa and reported to have lost contact with the rest
of the helicopters past 6 pm.
It took long for the rescuers to
move into action to help those trapped in the forest in unexplained
circumstances.
This was after a pilot of one of the
affected three MI-23, which disappeared radioed Department of Defence in
Nairobi saying they were alive in the forest and needed urgent help.
The Uganda People's Defence Forces
(UPDF) said a team of helicopters had left a base in the Ugandan city of
Entebbe but that only one had landed in the Kenyan town of Garissa, where they
were scheduled to refuel before flying on to Somalia.ß
The incident came at a time when the
long-planned assault on Somalia’s southern port town of Kismayu by the Kenya
Defence Forces and their Amisom allies is probably only days away in what will
be a decisive week for Somalia.
The African Union force, which also
includes Kenyan and Burundian troops, is planning an onslaught on Somalia's
second biggest city Kismayu, which is a hub for the Islamist militants, before
August 20.
Courtesy of
www.standardmedia.co.ke
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