Kenya denies collaboration in offensive against Somali Islamists

Feb 25, 2007 (NAIROBI) — Kenyan government has denied reports that it collaborated with the USA and Ethiopia in an offensive against Islamist militants in Somalia.

Government spokesperson, Alfred Mutua, says Kenya did not aid any country in military action against Somalia. The military action coincided with the closure of the Kenya-Somali border, which led to the arrest of several suspected al-Qaeda fighters.

Mutua, in a statement said Kenya’s action was to close and monitor its border with Somalia to prevent an influx of weapons and fighters into Kenya.

Kenya remains fully engaged in facilitation of peace in Somalia within the framework of Inter Governmental Authority on Development and the bilateral ties between the Kenyan government and the Federal Transitional Government of Somalia, the statement went on to say.

The closure of Kenya’s border with Somalia saw the arrest of some al-Qaeda fighters in both Kenya and Somalia. Several Islamists were killed or captured during the US-Ethiopian intervention in Somalia.

The US military secretly used landing strips in eastern Ethiopia to launch air strikes on suspected Islamists in Somalia last month, it was reported Friday 23 February.

Quoting anonymous army officials, the New York Times also claimed that the US diverted spy satellites to provide intelligence to Ethiopian troops as they swept across the country to drive the Somali Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) out of the capital, Mogadishu.

Initially it was suspected that the planes had flown from Djibouti, where the US has a large military base. But Djibouti’s president later condemned the US attacks, and denied the planes took off from there.

Bereket Simon, an Ethiopian government spokesman, said the US planes had not used landing strips in Ethiopia. But analysts said the report appeared to back up hitherto unconfirmed accounts.

(ST)