Al-Shabaab issue new terror threats to Kenya
What you need to know:
- Al-Shabaab has issued new terror threats to Kenya.
- The militia say Kenya will soon regret having pursued the group
The Al-Shabaab militia on Sunday scaled-up threats of imminent attack on Kenya for pursuing the terror group in Somalia. Read (KDF captures Al-Shabaab’s top woman)
The militia's in their official Twitter account @HSM Press Office, said Kenya will regret having decided to fight the militia.
"Kenya will soon regret having embarked on this particular course of action, insha Allaah,' said the tweet.
The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) incursion into Somalia started in October last year to secure its boundary from attacks by suspected Al-Shabaab militants controlling most of Southern Somalia.
The incursion started after the kidnapping of two Spanish aid workers at the Dadaab refugee camp and a British tourist in Lamu by suspected Al-Shabaab militants.
The incursion had the tacit approval of the Kenya government led by President Kibaki who in his Mashujaa Day speech in 2011 announced that the troops would remain in Somalia for as long as it took to wipe out the militants whom he said were behind the insecurity in the country.
The militants retaliated by staging isolated grenade attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa and North Eastern province towns of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera, claiming several lives.
The ultimate prize was to capture Kismayu, whose lucrative port provided the militants with financial resources obtained from extorting taxes from merchant ships and the sale of charcoal.
Within days, the KDF troops, fighting alongside the then Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces later renamed the Somalia National Army (SNA) and a local militia group captured several towns as they marched towards Kismayu.
With the onset of the long rains season in early 2012, the Kenyan troops were forced to go slow due to the terrible terrain but picked up momentum mid this year, starting the final push to capture the port city.
But it was not until September that the Kenyans eventually captured Kismayu, effectively wiping out the militants.
By that time, the Kenyan troops had joined the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
