KDF kill 7 Al Shabaab terrorists, capture Bardhere and Dinsoor towns in Somalia

Kenyan troops on Friday said they had killed seven Al-Shabaab terrorists and recovered five AK 47 rifles as they captured Bardhere, a key town that has been under the grip of the militants in Somalia.

The capture of Barhere on Thursday led to the liberation of Dinsoor Friday in a renewed operation with the Somalia National Army.

24 other militants had on Wednesday been killed in the battle for Bardhere.

Kenya Defence Forces Spokesman Col David Obonyo said the victory over Bardhere town that has been under Al-Shabaab for the last seven years was good for them.

Dinsoor fell Friday marking some of the last towns that were held by the militants.

“The capture of Bardhere and Dinsoor towns is a significant achievement in the fight against the militants and is a major step towards the achievement of Amisom mandate to restore security and stability to Somalia,” said Col Obonyo.

He added that both towns were major planning, operational and logistics bases for the militants and the loss will seriously affect and weaken them further.

Bardhere has also been the major base from where the militants have infiltrated the common border into northern Kenya through Gedo.

The militants are now holed up in Sugow, Buale and Jilib which are the main focus of Amisom to liberate the Juba Corridor.

The troops are working under the African Union Mission.

The operation started last week and so far 91 Al-Shabaab fighters have been killed in separate incidents.

Amisom last week launched "Operation Juba Corridor" — an offensive it said was aimed at flushing the insurgents out of rural areas in southern Somalia and which has involved Ethiopian and Kenyan forces.

It came ahead of the arrival of the US president Barack Obama in Nairobi to attend a global meeting on entrepreneurship.