Somalia's Transitional Federal Government has said it is receiving logistical and training support from Kenya in its fight against al-Shabab, the armed group that has been battling the government since 2006 and which currently controls much of the south of the country.
 
Kenya has sent troops to Somalia in a bid to pursue fighters it suspects of carrying out a spate of kidnappings, including that last week of two Spanish aid workers who were taken from a refugee camp located in northeast Kenya.
 
Somali and Kenyan troops have launched a joint operation to hunt down members of al-Shabab in southern Somalia.

Is Kenya about to get sucked into a protracted conflict in a war-torn country? And what impact will its presence there have?
 
Inside Story, with presenter Hazem Sika, discusses with guests: Miguna Miguna, a former advisor to the Kenyan prime minister; Jamal Osman, a Somali journalist and filmmaker; and Yusuf Mohamed Ismail Bari-Bari, Somalia's permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva.