Security forces arrest terror suspects, seize telecom gadgets

Kenya: A joint operation involving Kenyan and Ethiopian security forces led to the arrest of three suspects and seizure of more than 100,000 Simcards from three different countries.

The operation also recovered sophisticated telecommunication gadgets, all traced to the Al-Shabaab terror cell.

Yesterday, at around midday, joint forces from the two countries that included the military raided a residential area near the border and arrested the suspects with the gadgets worth millions of shillings.

 The security forces also recovered a quarter kilogram of bhang and a container of herbal drug used to make shisha concoction.

Marsabit County Commissioner Peter Thuku last evening said preliminary investigations showed that the three had been to Somalia for military training in recent months.

Meanwhile, a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) plane crashed yesterday while returning from a combat mission in Jamaame South of Somalia.

The plane crashed at around 3:15pm in the general area of Kismayu after it reportedly developed technical problems.

KDF is part of the African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom), a peace-keeping initiative run by the African Union.

A statement from KDF Spokesman Colonel David Obonyo did not state how many people were aboard when the plane crashed and if there were any casualties from the crash.

Kenya deployed over 4,000 troops in Somalia in October 2011 in an operation dubbed Operation Linda Nchi to weed out Al-Shabaab militants.