Kenyan military: 34 Al-Shabab fighters killed

The Kenyan military said on Sunday its troops killed 34 fighters from the armed al-Shabab group in clashes in Somalia.

Twenty-one fighters were killed in the southern city of Afmadow on Saturday, military spokesman Colonel David Obonyo said. He said two Kenyan soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast in the incident.

Meanwhile, Al-Shabab – according to SITE Intelligence Group that monitors insurgent groups – said it killed a dozen Kenyan soldiers and captured two of them in the attack.

Obonyo said Kenyan soldiers killed another 13 fighters on Sunday near Ras Kamboni in southern Somalia.

Kenya is among five countries contributing troops to an African Union force that is bolstering Somalia’s government against al-Shabab’s insurgency.

Of the troop-contributing countries, Kenya has borne the brunt of retaliatory attacks from al-Shabab.

Obonyo said on Wednesday that Kenyan troops on patrol on Tuesday night, in the southern city of Afmadow, killed 19 al-Shabab fighters preparing to attack a Somali National Army camp.

Al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaeda, is waging an insurgency against Somalia’s United Nations-backed government, carrying out deadly attacks on military and civilian targets in and outside Somalia.

Al-Shabab killed up to 200 Kenyan soldiers in a January attack, according to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.