Kenya has killed the commander of an elite unit within Somalia's
al Shabaab Islamist insurgency, a man blamed for masterminding a deadly attack
on a Kenyan military camp in southern Somalia last month, the Kenyan military
said on Thursday.
Kenyan
troops, working under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), killed
Mohamed Karatey, al Shabaab's deputy commander and head of intelligence, at a
graduation ceremony for insurgent fighters on Feb. 8, the Kenya Defence Forces
said in a statement.
"It
is believed Karatey played a major role in the recent attack on KDF troops in
El Adde by the deployment of his suicide bombers," KDF said in a
statement.
"His
killing now adds to that of the killing of Abdi Dek, the operation commander of
the Abu Zubeyr Brigade that carried out the attack in El Adde."
The
statement gave no further details on killing of Karatey but said the Kenyan
military had also killed 42 al Shabaab recruits and 10 other mid-level al
Shabaab commanders during the raid. It was not possible to independently verify
the killings.
Kenyan
troops took heavy losses when al Shabaab launched a dawn raid on their camp in
El Adde near the Kenyan border on Jan. 15, although they have not disclosed
exact casualty figures.
Al
Shabaab claimed the attack had killed more than 100 soldiers. The Islamist
insurgents have links to al Qaeda and seek to overthrow Somalia's weak
Western-backed government and drive out the African Union soldiers supporting
them.
Al
Shabaab has inflated casualty figures in the past, while other official
estimates often play them down.
The
unit that Karatey headed - known as Amniyat - comprises spies, suicide bombers
and explosives experts.