Other Nations Join Somalia Fight, Kenya Says
By JOSH KRON and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 23, 2011
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NAIROBI, Kenya Foreign military forces have joined the offensive against the Shabab militant group in Somalia as Kenyan troops advanced toward the rebel stronghold of Kismayu from two different directions, a Kenyan military spokesman said Sunday.
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The spokesman, Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir, said that the United States or France, or possibly both, had stepped up airstrikes in the past few days, killing a number of Shabab militants. The French Navy has also shelled rebel positions from the sea, Kenyan officials said.
The United States and France have not confirmed involvement in Somalia.
If Western military powers have indeed joined the conflict, analysts said, it could mark a turning point against the Shabab, a ruthless militant group that has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. It controls much of southern Somalia, though its young fighters and battered pick-up trucks are deemed no match for a sophisticated army.
Everybody is in theater, said Major Chirchir in a telephone interview on Sunday. We know about the strikes, he said, They are complementary.
Several American officials contacted on Sunday in the United States and Kenya declined to comment. A French diplomat in the United States did not return phone calls.
The American military has previously conducted surgical strikes in Somalia, taking the opportunity to kill terrorism suspects and Shabab fighters who were on the run. In 2006 and 2007, the American military cooperated closely with a large Ethiopian force that stormed into Somalia to oust an Islamist movement that had taken control of much of the country.
About a week ago, Kenya sent hundreds of its soldiers into Somalia to battle the Shabab, whom the Kenyans blame for a recent wave of kidnappings in Kenya; many independent analysts, however, doubt the group had a role in the abductions. Kenyas military says it plans to remain in Somalia until the Shababs capacity is reduced and Somalias weak, American-backed transitional government is able to function.
But Kenyas military especially compared to those of its neighbors, such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan and Somalia has scant experience fighting wars. Several military efforts over the past 20 years by other external powers, from the United States to the United Nations, have failed to deliver a sustainable government in Somalia.
Kenyan military officials say their plan is to squeeze the port town of Kismayu, one of Somalias biggest towns and a major money-earner for the Shabab, from two sides in a pincer movement with troops massing near Afmadow to the west and in Ras Kamboni to the south. Heavy rains, though, have literally bogged them down, and after an initial burst of activity, the Kenyan advance seems to have slowed considerably.
Major Chirchir said the Kenyan navy had also positioned ships along the coastline from the Kenyan border toward Kismayu.
Any vessel that is there with a militia we will take it down, he warned.
On Sunday, Kenyan officials said a French naval ship had shelled the city of Kuday, south of Kismayu, and that casualty figures were not yet available. The French military has also launched small, covert strikes in Somalia in the past, aimed at terrorist suspects and pirates.
A possible motivation for French involvement could be the death last week of a 66-year-old French woman who had been kidnapped from a beachside bungalow in Kenya and taken to Somalia. The woman was a cancer survivor and severely disabled, but her abductors refused to allow her to receive medicine, which friends said hastened her death.
Many Kenyans believe that the United States is indeed helping Kenya in Somalia. A two-inch-tall front-page headline in the Sunday Nation, one of Kenyas leading newspapers, blared: US planes join assault.
Kenya is one of Americas closest allies in Africa, but last week, American officials said they were caught off guard by the Kenyan offensive and that there were no American ground troops or military advisers involved.
American officials here are increasingly concerned about the prospect of the Shabab attacking Kenyas capital, Nairobi, in revenge, and possibly targeting Westerners. Last week, the Shabab threatened to bring the flames of war to Kenya, and the Shabab have slaughtered hundreds of Somali civilians with suicide bombs.
They have also grimly demonstrated their ability to strike abroad. The Shabab claimed responsibility for bombings in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, last summer that killed more than 70 pub-goers. The Shabab said the attacks were payback for Ugandas participation in the African Union peacekeeping force that has been protecting Somalias transitional government.
On Saturday evening, the American embassy sent a text message to American citizens in Kenya saying: This is to inform you that the U.S. Embassy in Kenya has received credible information of an imminent threat of terrorist attacks directed at prominent Kenyan facilities and areas where foreigners are known to congregate, such as malls and nightclubs. Please exercise caution.
Kenya has been struck before by terrorists, with Al Qaeda blowing up the American embassy in Nairobi in 1998, killing over 200 people, and again in 2002 when a beachfront hotel was bombed, killing more than 10.
Already Kenya is getting jittery. On Friday, a large explosion sounded across the street from a popular mall. Conversations at a cafe stopped as patrons peered around.
Its an electric transformer, said a waiter passing by. Dont worry. Its not Shabab.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.