Roadside blast kills 9 Kenyan soldiers in Somalia

Kenyan soldiers in Somalia. Kenya said a ‘pacification operation’ was under way after the attack. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

KISMAYO, Somalia - At least nine Kenya Defense Forces [KDF] soldiers were on Monday killed at Gherille in the Gedo region, officials said, in the latest onslaught targeting security forces in the federal republic of Somalia.

Gedo region is in Sector II of the African Union Mission Forces [AMISOM]. The KDF soldiers have often been targeted not only in Gedo but also across the country especially in Middle Jubba.

The Monday morning incident also left five soldiers critically injured, officials added. The lorry carrying troops ran over an Improvised Explosive Device [IED] which was placed along the road by the Al-Shabaab militants.

According to reports, the vehicle was in a convoy that had drawn water from a point inside Kenya and was crossing into Somalia for use when it happened at about 1 pm. Until now, the Department of Defense in Nairobi is yet to confirm the incident.

The vehicle, images showed, was badly dismembered and the injured soldiers have since been rushed to Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi. Al-Shabaab has been targeting innocent civilians and security forces using IEDs.

Officials said the terrorists are exploiting the low-cost strategy and deploying them near operating bases or main supply routes to attack their targets.

This is happening both locally especially in the northern part of the country and in Somalia. KDF troops are among those under Amisom that are operating in Somalia whose main duty is to suppress the militants.

KDF team has been in Somalia since 2011 and the group managed to flush out Al-Shabaab from Kismayo, the regional administrative capital of Jubaland in an operation dubbed "Operation Sledge Hammer".

There are close to 3,500 KDF soldiers in Somalia who mainly serve in Sectors II and IV of the AMISOM jurisdiction. The soldiers, despite liberating several strategic towns, lost immensely in 2016 and 2017 after attacks at El-Adde and Kulbiyow respectively.

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