US troops
NAIROBI, Jan 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Senior officials from the US military’s Africa Command have visited a military base in Kenya that was raided by militant group al-Shabaab on Sunday.
The military base, Camp Simba, is in the popular coastal region of Lamu and is used by Kenyan and US forces for training and counter-terrorism operations.
One US military service member and two contractors were killed in the attack.
The US army officials were briefed about “details of the attack” and “assessed the situation” at the camp, according to a statement by Gen Stephen Townsend, the commander of US Africa Command.
An unspecified number of US soldiers have already been deployed to secure the military base.
Somalia-based Al-Shabaab have reiterated their threats to attack US interests in Kenya. In a statement, claiming last Sunday’s attack, they said it was a “warning” and a sign of things to come.
Since April 2017, the United States has intensified aerial bombardments against the group who are fighting for the establishment of an Islamist regime in Somalia.
Last April, the U.S. military command for the African continent announced that it had killed 800 people in 110 air attacks since April 2017 in this country in the Horn of Africa.
Even though they were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011, the terrorists continue to control vast rural areas, from where they conduct guerrilla operations and suicide attacks. Kenya has become a target of the Shabaab. They blame Nairobi for its intervention in southern Somalia in 2011 to fight them.
Kenya has thus suffered several deadly attacks, such as the attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi (in September 2013 – with 67 dead) and the attack on Garissa University (April 2015 – 148 dead). — NNN-AGENCIES
