Kenya jets bomb Al-Shabab camp

Kenyan fighter jets bombed Al-Shabaab targets in the outskirt of the southern Somali town of Elwak Tuesday night as military offensive by African Union peacekeepers against the group continue, sources said.

Residents in Elwak town said that the Kenyan jets targeted a village which is a base to fighters of Al-Shabaab.

“We hear planes flying low overhead, then three or more explosions in the village. I don’t know if anyone was hurt in the explosions,” a resident in Elwak town, who asked for anonymity for safety reasons, said.

“One plane bombed a checkpoint and al-Shabab fighters there were firing guns at it,” said the resident said.

The Kenyan military spokesman was unavailable for comment on Tuesday’s raids.

Pro-Al-Shabaab radio confirmed the strikes which they said the planes hit the village  but did not cause any causality, a claim that cannot be independently verified.

The Al-Shabaab fighters were quoted as saying they have “repulsed the Kenya airstrikes.”

Kenyan troops, part of the AU peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), are deployed in the southern Somali regions along the two countries’ common border.

AMISOM troops and Somali government forces launched a major offensive against the group this year and forced Al-Shabaab fighters from a number of key areas in the south and center of Somalia.

The offensive was reportedly suspended by AMISOM and requested UN for more personnel and equipment to help them cope with the expanding areas under Somali government control.

In the past, Kenyan warplanes killed dozens of civilians in Southern Somalia in airborne attacks aimed at the al-Qaeda-linked extremists