Military says its mission to cripple Shabaab is largely accomplished

The Kenyan military said on Saturday it is now halfway through its mission to eliminate Al-Shabaab in southern Somalia, the objective of Operation Linda Nchi, which enters its 15th week on Sunday.

Speaking at the weekly media briefing on the operation at the Department of Defence headquarters, Col Cyrus Oguna, who is in charge of information and operations, said the Kenya Defence Forces are keen on destroying Al-Shabaab’s command  and logistics centres.

“As we are speaking now, Al-Shabaab is halfway in the pit,” said Col Oguna, who was accompanied by the director of Horn of Africa division at the Foreign Affairs ministry Lindsay Kiptiness and deputy police spokesman Charles Owino.

“The targeting has been on logistics bases and command centres and (these) are critical in any operation.  And if you cripple a logistics base and a command centre, the war is halfway won,” said Col Oguna.

He said the assessment of the progress made so far was based on the recent air strikes at Bibi and Jilib on January 15, at Tatar the following day and Bula Haji in the Southern Sector on January 18.

Six vehicles – five Toyota Land Cruisers and a lorry – were destroyed in the air strikes, and KDF said six Al-Shabaab commanders and an unknown number of members of the militia group were killed.

On Saturday evening, there were reports from security agents in Mogadishu that Bilal El Berjawi, considered the successor to Fazul Abdalla and Saleh Nabhan at the helm of the Al-Qaeda terror group, had been killed in an explosion linked to infighting within Al-Shabaab.

Col Oguna said the destruction of the defensive and supply base at Bibi and another at a town known as Hayo were crucial to KDF’s mission to obliterate the group seen as a legitimate threat to Kenya’s stability and economy.

Al-Shabaab has however raided Kenyan territory in Wajir, where about 100 of their fighters destroyed an Administration Police camp at Gerille and abducted three men, two of them civil servants.

The Kenya Government is trying to negotiate for the release of the two identified as Edward Mule, a district officer, and Fredrick Irungu, an immigration clerk, although it is not clear how it would negotiate with an enemy under constant attack.

Col Oguna said the incident indicates the difficulty in telling Al-Shabaab members apart from ordinary Somali citizens, who would even pretend to be seeking medical assistance across the border as they carry out surveillance on possible targets.

He said given the nature of the war with Al-Shabaab, which is not a conventional army, the abduction was an isolated case but such incidents are not entirely unexpected.

“Isolated incidents will always be there but we will not come out (of Somalia) until we are sure every Kenyan is safe,” said Col Oguna.

Avert terror attacks

Mr Owino asked for increased vigilance and cooperation between restaurant operators and the police to avert possible terror attacks during the screening of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations football matches.

The military police last Thursday evening arrested two Dutch nationals and a driver who were filming the DoD headquarters at Hurlingham in Nairobi.

On Friday, police in Mombasa also arrested a man taking photographs of the Central Bank, who also had photographs of other institutions in the coastal town, including the district commissioner’s office, Kenyatta University’s Mombasa campus main gate, the Bank of India and the Standard Chartered Bank.

The suspect had also photographed a hotel and the Municipal Garden, a public park popular with civil servants, a plane taking off, and a bridge.