Kenyan troops to stay in Somalia

THE chief of Kenya’s armed forces says Kenyan troops will stay in southern Somalia until Kenyans feel safe again. The statement came as gunmen attacked an African Union force base in the Somali capital.

Kenya sent troops into Somalia earlier this month after a string of cross-border attacks and kidnappings.

A British man, David Tebbutt, was shot last month in an attack on a Kenyan holiday resort and his wife, Judith, was kidnapped by Somali rebels.

Kenyan General Julius Karangi said yesterday that there was no timeline for the Kenyan operation to end.

Gunmen tried to enter the African Union base in Mogadishu yesterday morning but were stopped by AU troops in a fierce gun battle. The number of casualties is unknown.

Karangi says Kenya has no interest in permanently occupying Somalia and is working alongside the weak UN-backed Somali government, which only holds the capital with the help of 9,000 African Union soldiers.

Karangi says that although Kenya has bilateral military agreements with countries like the United States and Britain, those allies are not directly involved militarily in the incursion into Somalia.