Police arrest 60 Shabaab suspects

Colonel Cyrus Oguna (left) from the Department of Defence and Major Emmanuel Chirchir (right) during a media briefing on the 'Operation Linda Nchi at the Teleposta Towers, Nairobi November 19, 2011 . WILLIAM OERI

Police have arrested 60 suspected Al-Shabaab militants who were headed to Somalia to join the terror group being pursued by Kenya’s military.

Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia said the militants had entered the country from Uganda en route to southern Somalia.

The militants are thought to have flown to Uganda from Europe and then entered Kenya using panya routes as they attempted to cross over to the war-torn country through the porous Kenya-Somalia border.

“These people are flying to Entebbe from Europe and then entering Kenya through panya routes so as to avoid JKIA. They were headed to the war zone, but some of them planned to reach Nairobi,” Mr Kimemia said.

The arrests came as Kenyan troops intensified their military action in southern Somalia over the last five days, killing a total of 28 Al-Shabaab militants and capturing scores of others.

Speaking during the weekly briefing on the progress of Operation Linda Nchi, military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said Kenyan troops had made significant inroads into Al-Shabaab-controlled areas in the past week and thanked Somalis in the area for volunteering information on the militants’ possible hideouts.

He added that Kenya has been receiving intelligence from local Somalis regarding Al-Shabaab hideouts.

“This has enabled us to conduct raids and defeat them. We have managed to win over the hearts and minds of the local communities who are giving us crucial intelligence,” said Col Oguna who was accompanied by Major Emmnuel Chirchir, deputy police spokesman Charles Owino and Mr Lindsey Kiptiness, the deputy director, Horn of Africa Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Col Oguna said Kenyan forces had conducted several raids in the military’s central, southern and northern sectors of southern Somalia between last Sunday and Wednesday and killed 28 Al-Shabaab militants.

In the first attack, launched in Busar near the Kenyan town of El Wak on Sunday, Kenyan forces killed six Al-Shabaab militants and injured six others.

One Kenyan soldier who sustained gunshot wounds during the confrontation died while undergoing treatment at the military hospital in Garissa, Col Oguna said.

Three days later, Kenyan troops conducted a second raid in the same area after receiving reports from locals that they had spotted the militants and killed 12 Al-Shabaab fighters.

Three Transitional Federal Government soldiers fighting alongside Kenyan troops were also killed during the exchange of fire, he added.

Kenyan troops also raided a village called Sinai near the Kenyan border after receiving information from locals that Al-Shabaab fighters were hiding amongst a group of women.

“We opened fire at the group and killed five Al-Shabaab fighters but also lost one soldier to enemy fire. This proves that Al-Shabaab is using women and children as human shields,” he said.

Kenyan troops also arrested some of the women who were harbouring Al-Shabaab fighters and handed them over to the Kenya Police in North Eastern province.

Mr Owino confirmed that the women were still undergoing interrogation.

“They are safe, but we have to keep transferring them from one police station to another for security reasons. We are interrogating them after which we will decide whether to arraign them in court or hand them over to the Somali federa government,” said Mr Owino.

Col Oguna said Kenyan forces had lost a total of eight soldiers since the operation started, while one soldier was missing.

“We have lost eight soldiers, three to enemy fire and five who died in a plane crash at Liboi. One soldier disappeared in the ocean and is still missing,” he said.