Official: Al-Shabaab leaders contact Kenyan government to negotiate
By David McKenzie, CNN
Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) -- A Kenyan government official said Thursday that Al-Shabaab leaders are seeking negotiations as the nation pursues the Islamist militants deeper into Somalia.
"They want to talk," said the official, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media.
Kenyan troops struck several Al-Shabaab training sites in Somalia early Thursday, a military spokesman said. The militant group, which includes many rival factions with different leaders, operates from the nation.
The group's leaders are reaching out nearly two weeks after the troops stormed Somalia to hunt for Al-Shabaab, which Kenya blames for recent kidnappings of foreigners in the nation. Kidnappers have seized two aid workers and two European tourists in the past month.
"We have looked at what is going on ... and decided that unless we move in now, Al-Shabaab is not diminishing, it is becoming bigger and bigger," Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said.
The war on terror cannot be won without dismantling the group's power, he said.
Efforts to flush out the terror group will take a "couple of months, if that," Mutua said, adding that "weeks" would be a more ideal time frame.
Analysts and diplomats have raised concerns over the incursion, saying it gives the terror group a reason to strike Kenya.
"If there is anything we have learned in the last couple of decades is that foreign intervention, especially military intervention, doesn't work in Somalia," said Rashid Abdi, an analyst for International Crisis Group "I definitely understand Kenya's anxiety about the terror threat emanating from Somalia ... but I think there is more that Kenya could have done inside the country."
While noting Kenya's "right to defend itself," the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi said it was not part of the decision to send troops to Somalia.
"The United States did not encourage the Kenyan government to act nor did Kenya seek our views," said Katya Thomas, the embassy's press officer. "We note that Kenya has a right to defend itself against threats to its security and its citizens."
Kenya has said its forces aim to take the Somali port city of Kismayo, described by the United Nations as a key stronghold and source of cash for Al-Shabaab. The United Nations estimates the group collects up to $50 million a year from businesses in Kismayo, about half of its annual income.
Kenyan officials declared self-defense justifies crossing the border with Somalia, saying a recent spate of kidnappings threatened its security and constituted an attack.
Somali President Sharif Ahmed thanked Kenya on Wednesday for helping battle the extremist group two days after he accused the nation of overstepping its boundaries.