Kenya warplanes bomb Shebab camps in Somali

Prez Kenyatta vowed to retaliate ‘in severest way possible’

Nairobi, April 6: Kenyan fighter jets, on Monday, bombed two camps of the al-Qaedalinked Shebab insurgents in southern Somalia, the army said, days after the Islamists carried out their worst ever massacre in Kenya.

“We bombed two Shebab camps in the Gedo region,” Kenyan army spokesman David Obonyo said. “The two targets were hit and taken out, the two camps are destroyed.” The air strikes follow threats by President Uhuru Kenyatta that he would retal- iate “in the severest way possible” against the Shebab militants for their attack on Thursday on a university in Kenya’s northeastern town of Garissa in which nearly 150 died.

There was no information given as to casualties in the bases hit.

The Shebab gunmen launched the pre-dawn attack in Garissa, storming dormitory buildings before lining up nonMuslim students for execution in what Kenyatta described as a “barbaric medieval slaughter”.

On Monday, Kenyan air- planes have made repeated strikes in southern Somalia since their troops crossed into their war-torn neighbour in 2011 to attack Shebab bases, with Nairobi later joining the African Union force fighting the Islamists.

“The bombings are part of the continued process and engagement against al-Shebab, which will go on,” Mr Obonyo added.

The Shebab fled their power base in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu in 2011, and continue to battle the AU force, AMISOM, sent to drive them out that includes troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The group has carried out a string of revenge attacks in neighbouring countries, notably Kenya and Uganda, in response to their participation in the AU force. Five men have been arrested in connection with the university attack, including three alleged coordinators captured as they fled towards Somalia, and two others on varsity campus. The two include a security guard and a Tanzanian, hiding with grenades. — AFP