Nairobi
(AFP) - The Kenyan military said Sunday it killed 34 Islamic insurgents
in two separate battles in neighbouring Somalia this weekend.
Military
spokesman David Obonyo said two Kenyan soldiers were also killed and
five others wounded when Shebab militants staged an ambush in Afmadhow,
southern Somalia, on Saturday afternoon.
"21 Shebab militants were killed," Obonyo said, during what he described as a "fierce engagement".
Last week, the Kenyan army said it thwarted an attack on a military camp also at Afmadhow, killing 19 militants.
Obonyo
said 13 more Shebab fighters were killed in a separate operation on
Sunday in Sarira, north of the southern port town of Ras Kamboni, in
which "a middle level Shebab commander" was also captured. In both
incidents weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled
grenades, were seized, Obonyo said.
In January, the Al
Qaeda-aligned Shebab overran a Kenyan military camp in El-Adde, southern
Somalia, manned by up to 200 soldiers, killing a large number of them
although Nairobi has refused to say how many died.
The attack,
which was widely regarded as Kenya's worst-ever military loss, was the
third major assault on isolated bases manned by soldiers of the
multinational African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Camps set up by
Burundian and Ugandan troops have also been attacked with scores of
soldiers killed each time.
As a result of the string of attacks
AMISOM forces have withdrawn from a number of towns in southern Somalia
and observers say the troops are largely in garrison mode, hardly
venturing out into hostile territory.
Earlier this month, the US
said it carried out an air strike on a Shebab training camp north of the
Somali capital Mogadishu killing 150 fighters, a figure disputed by the
insurgents.
The strike marked
a shift in US strategy in Somalia which had previously focused on
targeted killings of a small number of Shebab fighters with suspected
direct links to Al-Qaeda, rather than mass attacks on foot soldiers.
The
Shebab was ousted from Mogadishu in August 2011 and has since lost much
of the territory it once held. Today, it concentrates on guerrilla
attacks in the Somali countryside, bombings and suicide raids in towns
and cities, and terror assaults in Kenya where small groups of Shebab
gunmen have attacked a mall in Nairobi and a university in Garissa in
recent years.
Shebab fighters
have targeted AMISOM in Somalia because, in the absence of a functioning
national army, the 22,000-strong force is the only protector of the
internationally-backed government that the jihadists are committed to
overthrowing.
Shebab attacks
have increased in tempo since the start of the year, seen as an attempt
to destabilise the government ahead of an election due later this year.
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