Islamist Shebaab fighters attacked a Kenyan military base in southern Somalia yesterday in the second assault by the Al Qaeda linked group this week.
The attack on the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) base at Kolbiyow, close to the Kenyan border in Somalia’s Lower Juba region, began with suicide truck bombers blasting their way into the camp, followed by militants attacking from different directions.
Shebaab claimed in a statement posted on its website SomaliMeMo to have overrun the base, captured military vehicles and equipment and to have killed 57 Kenyan soldiers.
“Fighters have taken control of the base and the overall Kolbiyow area after massacring the Kenyan infidels,” the statement said.
The Kenyan defence ministry countered with a statement that “information being peddled by terrorists ... is false and part of their propaganda”.
KDF spokesman Paul Njuguna said that Kenyan soldiers had fought back, killing many of the Islamists.
Njuguna said Kenyan soldiers “fiercely engaged a Shebaab group which had attempted to attack the camp” before dawn.
“KDF soldiers repulsed the terrorists killing scores,” he said, but did not give any figure for Kenyan casualties.
Shebaab frequently overstates the death toll from its attacks while Kenya commonly underplays its losses.
In January last year a Kenyan base at El-Adde was attacked and overrun by Shebaab fighters who claimed to have killed over 100 Kenyan soldiers.
The government refused to give its own toll.
The Shebaab, which once controlled much of Somalia, is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.
It launches regular attacks on government, military and civilian targets and has carried out a series of deadly assaults against foreign soldiers deployed in Somalia.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is a 22,000-strong force comprising soldiers from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
Over the last two years Shebaab has rampaged through bases manned by Burundian soldiers in Lego, Ugandan troops in Janale and the Kenyans in El-Adde, inflicting high casualties and stealing military equipment each time.
The Kolbiyow raid is the second major attack this week in Somalia, coming three days after 28 people were killed when Shebaab bombers and fighters attacked a hotel in the capital.
“If it is confirmed that Shebaab killed 57 soldiers from Kenya, that would be a major blow to [the African Union] military mission, which had stepped up operations against militants over the past couple of years,” Somali security analyst Khalid Ahmed said.
There was no immediate response from African Union (AU) military officials based in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Somalia is due to hold a presidential vote in early February, signalling the end of a drawn-out electoral process in which a new parliament has also been selected.
Political infighting and ongoing insecurity scuppered plans for a universal vote in 2016, with lawmakers elected by specially selected delegates.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of president Siad Barre’s military regime, which ushered in more than two decades of anarchy and conflict in a country deeply divided along clan lines.
