Kenya: Kenya Forces Clash With Al Shabaab in Somalia

Garbaharey — The Kenyan army serving under The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) engaged fierce clashes on Monday with Al shabab fighters in south west Somalia, reports said.

There were differing accounts of which side bore the brunt of the fighting in the small town of Gursar in Gedo region, the worst involving Kenyan troops since they invaded into Somalia October last year, to pursue Al shabab, which Nairobi blames string of attacks and kidnappings against foreign aid workers in its soil.

The situation is reported to be calm on Monday afternoon after the skirmish subsided and the area is under Somali and Kenyan forces.

Al-Shabab has waged a four-year campaign against Somalia’s United Nations-backed Somali government and controls swathes of central and southern rural area in Somalia.

The country has been engulfed by civil war for more than two decades and has not had a functioning government since the 1991 overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre.