News somali (warsom.com)
Kenya has announced it will intensify its operation against the Al-Shabaab rebel group amid recent attacks in its border areas with Somalia.
Chief of Defence Forces General Julius Karangi said Wednesday the troops battling Al-Shabaab militia had been put on high alert during the Christmas season in expectation of more aggressive attacks.
‘The soldiers remain on high alert. They will remain on a higher level of alert than before,’ Karangi told journalists, when he visited troops at a military camp in Ishakani, about 4 km from the Somali border and a launching point for the Al-Shabaab operation.
The Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) deployed on land, sea and air have been in hot pursuit of the Al-Shabaab, which has promised revenge attacks.
Kenyan officials blame the Islamist group or their sympathizers for a series of recent shootings and bombings in Kenya.
The higher alert comes as security forces launched a major crackdown at Dadaab refugee complex Tuesday and Wednesday and arrested two Somali men in connection with recent blasts that killed a policeman and injured two others in Hagardera camp.
Acting Dadaab District Commissioner Bernard Ole Kipury said he suspected Al-Shabaab sympathizers were behind the blasts and accused the militants of disguising themselves as refugees to enter the camp, home to more than 450,000 people, mainly Somalis who have fled famine and conflict in their country.
He said the authorities had intensified patrols in the camp and would soon be conducting more operations to flush out militants.
The explosions were the latest in a spate of grenade and landmine attacks in Kenya’s northern regions bordering Somalia since its troops crossed into the troubled country.
And they came only a week after four people were injured in two separate grenade attacks in the northern Kenyan town of Garissa.