KENYA: Army kills top Al Shabaab commander

Kenya Defence Force killed a top commander of Al Shabaab and 18 members of his militia in two air strikes in Somalia close to the Kenyan border.

Separate reports from the battlefront said KDF on Tuesday also fought the fierce battle in Busar town on Tuesday night to save Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government forces from annihilation by Al Shabaab groups fighting to evict them from one of their former camps in Busar.

Both the air strikes in Hosingo and the rescue mission in Busar by KDF were part of the engagement in the field revealed in Nairobi by the military spokesman and reported by The Standard field crew in Somalia.

The military broke the news of the air strikes in Hosongo town as a confidential Government security status report went into circulation showing the militia has sent assassins to Kenya to hunt down Defence Minister Yusuf Haji and Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim.

"We have received information a group of Al Shabaab operatives were dispatched from Lower Juba in Somalia to Ijara and Lagdera constituencies on December 13, with a brief to assassinate Defence Minister Yusuf Haji and Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim," states the report signed by Internal Security PS Francis Kimemia.

In the letter, Kimemia further states the militant group dispatched some unidentified explosive experts from Buale in Somalia to attack Habaswein and Elwak markets on an undisclosed date.

In the letter copied to Haji and Farah, Kimemia advises North Eastern PC James ole Serian to ensure security officers are vigilant to stop such attempts.

"Al Shabaab appears determined to continue pursuing targets in Kenya,’’ said Kimemia in the letter dated December 15.

It also emerged that on Wednesday the Chief of Defence of Forces General Julius Karangi and Army Commander Lt-General Joseph Kasaon made a surprise whistle-stop landing in the battlefront in Somalia to meet, listen to, and encourage the field troops. It was their first visit since the operation started in October.

read more.....