/ 28 February 2011

Somali rebels threaten Kenya for training militia

Somalia's al-Qaeda-inspired rebels have accused Kenya of training militia to attack them and warned of reprisals.

Somalia’s al-Qaeda-inspired rebels have accused Kenya of training militia to attack them and warned of reprisals.

The warning, late on Sunday by al-Shabaab spokesperson Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, came after days of fierce clashes in the south of the war-torn country between the insurgents and fighters they said were trained by Kenya.

“Kenya has long been working to undermine the existence of the Islamic sharia in Somalia,” Rage told reporters in Mogadishu. “It has opened training camps inside [Somali] territories to train apostate Somali militants and also offered military bases to Ethiopian forces who are invading the neighbouring Islamic region of Gedo.

“We shall no longer tolerate the constant aggression and ill acts of Kenya against our Muslim society. Kenya will bear responsibility for the consequences of the continuing aggression.”

Rage did not specify what action al-Shabaab would take, but the hard-line Islamist group has previously threatened Kenya with attacks for supporting Somalia’s interim government it is fighting to topple.

Al-Shabaab controls much of central and southern Somalia, which shares a long and porous border with Kenya. — AFP