That problem eventually forced both UN and Ethiopian forces to withdraw from Somalia, though Gen. Julius Karangi told reporters that Kenya does not have a timeframe for leaving. Kenyan sent troops into Somalia earlier this month to fight Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militants.
“When the Kenya government and the people of this country feel that they are safe enough from the Al-Shabab menace, we shall pull back,” Karangi said. “Key success factors or indicators will be in the form of a highly degraded Al-Shabab capacity.”
But 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. The Somali president has criticized the Kenyan intervention but Kenyan officials said they expected “clarification” from a high-level Somali delegation on Monday.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia following a string of cross-border attacks and kidnappings blamed on Somali gunmen. Kenya also hosts around 600,000 Somali refugees who have fled the fighting and famine in their homeland. The government is deeply worried about the rapidly swelling refugee camps in the north, which it considers a severe security problem.
So far Kenya has suffered one fatality due to Al-Shabab fire, Karangi said, although five people were killed when their helicopter crashed. He said hundreds of Al-Shabab were believed to be killed although he had no way of confirming that directly.
Karangi says that although Kenya has bilateral military agreements with countries like the United States and Britain, those allies are not directly militarily involved in the incursion into Somalia.
“There has been a lot of talk about other friends of ours participating militarily in what we are engaged in, and the answer is no,” he said. “I think the American ambassador yesterday made it very clear ... that they are not militarily involved in the campaign with us.”
Meanwhile, two African Union peacekeepers were injured on Saturday when Al-Shabab rebels attacked one of the mission’s bases in Mogadishu, a spokesman for the force said. “Al-Shabab attacked us at the former steel factory which is beyond the Mogadishu stadium. Fighting has subsided but it is still going on,” said Paddy Ankunda, the AU mission’s spokesman.
He said the attack started with a suicide bombing which injured two Ugandan soldiers.
Residents in the area said they heard explosions before gunfire erupted between the two sides.
An Al-Shabab spokesman, however, said the base has fallen into rebel hands and “many” peacekeepers had been killed.
“Two of our fighters with government uniforms jumped over the wall and started fighting inside the Ugandan base,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said. “Then many fighters joined the fighting from all corners — we killed many Ugandans. The steel factory is in our hand now.”
