This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/06/kenya-launches-air-strikes-against-al-shabaab-camps-in-somalia

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Kenya launches air strikes against al-Shabaab camps in Somalia Kenya launches air strikes against al-Shabaab camps in Somalia
(about 3 hours later)
The Kenyan air force has bombed two al-Shabaab camps in Somalia, a spokesman said on Monday, in the first major military response to last week’s attack by the militant group on Garissa University. Kenyan officials have said that fighter jets had bombed two al-Shabaab camps in southern Somalia, as more details emerged of the model-student-turned-jihadi who took part in a massacre that left 148 dead.
In the first major military response to last week’s attack by the militant group on GarissaUniversity, jets hit what were described as al-Shabaab camps in the Gondodowe and Ismail regions of Somalia, close to the border with Kenya.
“We targeted the two areas because according to information we have, those (al Shabaab) fellows are coming from there to attack Kenya,” a military spokesman told Reuters.
The bombings, which followed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s promise to retaliate in “the severest way possible” to the attack, in which dozens of cowering students were lined up and shot in the head at close range, came as people digested the shock identity of one of the gunmen.
Abdirahim Mohamed Abdullahi – whose name was first revealed by the Kenyan journalist Yassin Juma on his blog and later confirmed by Kenyan authorities – was described by friends as a brilliant, upcoming lawyer and an A-grade student who took a mysterious turn to radical Islam at some point between his transition from school to university.
Related: Kenya shock and defiance as al-Shabaab gunman revealed to be official's sonRelated: Kenya shock and defiance as al-Shabaab gunman revealed to be official's son
Jets pounded the camps in Gondodowe and Ismail, both in the Gedo region bordering Kenya, the military source said. Cloud cover made it difficult to establish how much damage the bombings caused or estimate the death toll. Abdullahi was the son of a chief – a Kenyan government official whose job includes identifying criminals to the police and arbitrating over local disputes.
“We targeted the two areas because according to information we have, those [al-Shabaab] fellows are coming from there to attack Kenya,” he said, in reference to Thursday’s massacre. Friends described the gunman, who had secured an internship at a major bank which recruits many Muslim staff after they graduate, as a bright student who began to show traces of radicalisation during his college studies, even as he offered motivational lectures to high-school students.
Al-Shabaab said the assault in Garissa, which is 120 miles (200km) from the Somali border, was revenge for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight alongside African Union peacekeepers against the group. “He used to make the students laugh with his words, quoting wise people and motivate them to do the best they can. He was the perfect lawyer. He had his way with people,” one former student said.
The group is aligned to al-Qaida and has threatened to turn Kenyan cities “red with blood” with more attacks. Police have stepped up security at shopping malls and public buildings in the capital Nairobi, and in the eastern coastal region which has been prone to al-Shabaab attacks. One student described a conversation with Abdullahi and another of his former high school colleagues Mohamed Atom, who is the only Kenyan known to have travelled to join the Islamic State in Syria, after one of their motivational lectures.
On Saturday, the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, vowed harsh measures against the Islamic militants. “We will fight terrorism to the end,” he said in a televised address. “I guarantee that my administration shall respond in the fiercest way possible.” He told the Sahan Journal website that the lawyer-turned-Jihadi and his friend spoke of the futility of western education and repeatedly brought up the question of dying to advance the cause of religion.
“After the lecture, they kept talking about how secular education was not useful,” said a previous student who engaged him afterwards. “He kept saying, ‘we need to strengthen our connection with Allah. It is the knowledge of Islam that will only be useful to you today and in the hereafter.’”
Alarmed by the prospect of more Kenyans returning from jihadi training camps to take part in terror atrocities, authorities urged relatives whose children had disappeared to come forward.
“It is indeed very necessary and critical that parents whose children go missing or show tendencies of having been exposed to violent extremism report to authorities to help prevent further escalation of radicalisation”, interior ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka told The Standard newspaper.
Kenya entered the second of three days of national mourning amid a debate about the country’s involvement in a UN-backed, African Union troop mission to tackle al-Shabaab in Somalia.
Although the Kenyan military has enjoyed considerable success on the battlefield, taking few casualties and pushing the terror group from most populated centres in southern Somalia, the mission has come at the cost of more than 400 Kenyan lives.
Al-Shabaab, which at one point controlled most of Somalia, has lost swaths of territory in recent years but diplomats have repeatedly warned this has not diminished its ability to stage guerrilla-style attacks at home and abroad.Al-Shabaab, which at one point controlled most of Somalia, has lost swaths of territory in recent years but diplomats have repeatedly warned this has not diminished its ability to stage guerrilla-style attacks at home and abroad.
Survivors of the Garissa attack spoke of merciless executions by the attackers, who stalked classrooms and dormitories hunting for non-Muslim students. It has threatened to turn Kenyan cities “red with blood” and police have stepped up security at shopping malls and public buildings in the capital, Nairobi, and in the eastern coastal region, which is popular with tourists and been prone to attacks.
Reuben Mwavita, 21, a student, said he saw three female students kneeling in front of the gunmen, begging for mercy.
“The mistake they made was to say ‘Jesus, please save us’, because that is when they were immediately shot,” Mwavita said.
Within hours of the attack, Kenya put up a 20m shillings (£145,000) reward for the arrest of Mohamed Mohamud, a former Garissa teacher labelled “Most Wanted” in a government poster and linked by Kenyan media to two separate al-Shabaab attacks in the neighbouring Mandera region last year.