PHOTO/PHOEBE OKALL
Col Cyrus Oguna during the Kenya Defence Forces media briefing on
Saturday.
He said KDF expects terror group al-Shabaab to retreat or
surrender in the coming weeks.
Daily Nation
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Three people were killed and one is in a critical condition at the
Garissa Provincial Hospital following an attack in Garissa town that
has been blamed on Al-Shabaab operatives.
The incident occurred on Friday evening as the victims took tea outside Jubba Hotel.
A
witness at the hotel said two masked men armed with pistols walked up
to the group and shot at the men, killing two of them instantly.
The
third succumbed to bullet wounds as preparations to airlift him to
Nairobi were made. The assailants ran off after the attack.
Relatives
of the slain men say they believed it was an Al-Shabaab attack as one
of the terrorist group’s leaders – identified only as Sheikh Ahmed –
had claimed two of the victims were wanted by the militants because
they had fled Somalia to sabotage the group.
Mr
Hamud Sheikh Mohamed, an elder in Garissa who was among the first
people at the scene, appealed to the government to ensure the security
of the public since the incident has caused widespread panic in the
town.
“Nobody
is safe in this town if two youthful attackers can walk into the middle
of the town armed with pistols, kill and walk away,” he said, urging
the police to increase their patrols.
And in Nairobi, KDF told a news conference that they had
conducted what they termed the finest air raid since the war against
Al-Shabaab began, saying it had massively weakened the terrorist group.
The raid was carried out using helicopter gunships in Dalayat at 5pm on Friday.
“This is one of the best attacks ever. We got them (Al-Shabaab militants) in vehicles before they could alight.
"They
were planning to attack our troops at Badade and we caught them
unawares,” said the officer in charge of operations and information,
Col Cyrus Oguna.
Nine lorries and an equal number of technical vehicles mounted with heavy artillery were destroyed, he said.
Colonel
Oguna said many Al-Shabaab fighters were killed and others injured. The
attack, he said, meant that KDF would continue occupying Hosingo and
Badade townships, where they had ousted Al-Shabaab a week earlier.
Col
Oguna said the captured towns had been used by Al-Shabaab as transit
points for explosive devices which were then smuggled into Kenya.
“They also contributed to erosion of the economy in Kenya since they
provided routes for contraband goods like electronics and sugar. The
IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) in Garissa and Wajir may also be
reduced,” he said.
Col Oguna added: “Al-Shabaab is completely weakened. Their source of
revenue is destroyed and they are ceding more ground. In the coming
weeks, we expect the Al-Shabaab to back off, retreat or surrender.”