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Kenya air raid in Somalia Jilib town 'kills civilians' | |
(about 17 hours later) | |
At least five people, including three children, have died after a refugee camp in southern Somalia was bombed, the MSF charity says. | |
Kenya's army denied bombing the camp, saying it had been attacked by the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab. | |
A Kenya fighter jet only hit al-Shabab positions in Jilib, killing 10 of its fighters, an army spokesman said. | |
Kenya sent troops into Somalia on 16 October to pursue al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda. | |
In a statement, MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said aerial bombardments in Jilib - a stronghold of al-Shabab - had hit a camp for displaced people on Sunday. | |
Three children, a woman and a man were killed in the attack and another 45 people were treated for shrapnel wounds, MSF-Holland Somalia mission head Gautam Chatterjee said. | |
In a BBC interview, Kenyan military spokesman Maj Emmanuel Chirchir denied that Kenya's air force had bombed the camp. | |
'Attack at sea' | |
"MSF is being used by al-Shabab [for propaganda purposes]," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. | |
He said an al-Shabab militant had driven a truck laden with explosives into the camp, causing the casualties. | |
A Kenyan fighter jet had attacked an al-Shabab base near the refugee camp, Maj Chirchir said. | |
"We received intelligence that a top al-Shabab leader was to visit a camp in Jilib so we conducted an air raid," he said. | |
Maj Chirchir said "human intelligence" showed that 10 al-Shabab fighters had been killed and 47 wounded. | |
Mr Chatterjee said MSF had evacuated its staff from Jilib, the AFP news agency reports. | |
"So today the nutrition clinic and cholera centre are closed. We will re-open as soon as things are a bit safer for our staff there," he is quoted as saying. | |
Maj Chirchir said al-Shabab had also been attacked at sea, with the Kenyan navy capsizing three of its boats along the Somali coast. | |
Kenya says it is pursuing al-Shabab in Somalia because it poses a threat to its stability. | |
It accuses the group of a spate of kidnappings in Kenya - including that of a French woman who died in Somalia earlier this month. | |
Al-Shabab denies involvement in the abductions. | |
It has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops into Somalia. | |
Somalia has been without an effective for more than 20 years. | |
The UN declared a famine earlier this year in six areas under al-Shabab's control. | |
Somalia's Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohammed visited Kenya on Monday and said al-Shabab was the common enemy of Somalia and Kenya and the best way to deal with the effects of the famine was to defeat the group. | |
He said Somali government troops were taking the lead in the offensive against al-Shabab and that the Kenyan military was playing a supportive role. | |
Last week, Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said he was opposed to Kenya's intervention. | |
Some humanitarian agencies are worried that the operation threatens to make it harder to get aid to the victims of the famine in southern Somalia, correspondents say. |