Tweet Attacks | Kenya In Hot Pursuit Of Al-Shaabab

NAIROBI: Kenyan troops have crossed the border into war-torn Somalia to attack Islamist rebels they accuse of recent kidnappings of foreigners, Kenyan officials said.

Kenyan Internal Security minister, George Saitoti said on Saturday that, troops would cross the frontier, branding Somalia's al-Qaeda-inspired rebels "the enemy" and blaming them for the abduction of four European women. In just more than a month, a British woman and a French woman have been abducted from beach resorts.

The abductions have dealt a major blow to Kenya's tourism industry.Two female Spanish aid workers were kidnapped on Thursday in the Dadaab refugee camp, the world's largest camp, crammed with about 450,000 mainly Somali refugees.

"They [the army] have been instructed to get ready for the assignment, which will mainly include pushing the al-Shaabab rebels far inside Somalia, away from the common border," a military official said.Large numbers of troops and military aircraft, including helicopters, have been seen close to the border.

Several witnesses reported large-scale troop movements in Kenya's border regions, with truck-loads of soldiers heading towards the frontier.Though Kenya has blamed the abductions on al-Shabab, experts say the kidnappings might be the work of pirates, bandits or opportunistic criminal gangs.

Somalia has had no effective government since it plunged into repeated rounds of civil wars beginning in 1991, allowing militia armies, extremist rebels and piracy to flourish.The pursuit of the kidnappers into Somalia signals a major change in Kenya's approach to the security threat posed by the lawless Somalia.Uganda and Burundi each have thousands of troops fighting al-Shaabab militants in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, but Kenya has not been engaged in the fight until now.

Al-Shabab carried out a devastating suicide attack in Uganda, killing 76 people, last year and Kenya's decision to bring its military into engagement with the Islamists could increase the likelihood of more attacks.
( Sapa-AFP-AP )

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