Kenyan Army denied media reports of Kenyan fighter jets crash in Somalia.

On Tuesday, the Iranian Press-TV reported ‘two Kenyan jet fighters have crashed after colliding over southern Somalia’.

The news claimed further that:

The two fighter planes crashed between the towns of Kismayu and Qooqani, a Somali military officer told the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu on Tuesday.
The jets were heading to the southern port city of Kismayu after targeting the positions of al-Shabab fighters in southern Somalia, the officer added.

However, Kenyan Military spokesman Maj. Chirchir dismissed the claim in a statement to journalists in Nairobi. Maj. Chirchr said, ‘attention of the Ministry of State for Defence has been drawn to the influx of propaganda and false information in regards to the on going operation in Somalia’.

Citing Press-TV’s news of plane crashes and a couple of news items concerning the Kenyan Air force, Chirchir added:

these reports are false malicious and lack facts. Such news is meant to misinform the public from the objectives of Operation Linda Nchi while corrupting the minds of both the people of Kenya and Somalia.

United States’ officials denied bombing southern Somalia, despite repeated claims by Press-TV in the past week. The New York Times reported:

Two senior American officials in Washington said Sunday that neither the United States military nor the Central Intelligence Agency had carried out airstrikes in Somalia in recent days. One of the officials, who follows American military operations closely, said the Kenyan offensive had forced many Shabab fighters and commanders to disperse, making them easier potential targets, but emphasized that there had been “no U.S. military strikes in Somalia at all recently.”

American officials in Kenya declined to comment. A French diplomat in the United States did not return phone calls.

However, US State Department expressed its support for Kenya on Tuesday. Spokeswoman of the Department, Victoria Nuland, in a press briefing on October 25, 2011, made the following remarks:

QUESTION:  Can I also ask you, on the subject of Somalia, did the U.S. back Kenya’s decision to send in military forces into Somalia?

MS. NULAND:  I don’t think that it was a matter of backing or not backing.  I think you know what our relationship is with Kenya, that we don’t participate, obviously, militarily, but we do support the training and the equipping of the Kenyan military.

QUESTION:  So what do you think of Somalia’s president then calling on Kenya to halt the offensive?  Does the U.S. have a position, one way or the other, since the purpose of this Kenyan mission is to go after al-Shabaab?

MS. NULAND:  I mean, in the same way that we protect our security interests, Kenya is protecting its own security interests.  And we share deep concern about al-Shabaab, and we cooperate very closely in trying to go after it and squeeze it.  And as I said, we do participate in the training and equipping of the Kenyan counterterrorism forces in the Kenyan military for these purposes.

Two days earlier, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton told ABC News:

Well, I’m not going to get into specifics, but they’ve been public in their threats.  You can look at coverage over the last weeks that they’ve threatened Kenya, they have threatened Westerners.  So al-Shabaab remains a very serious threat, which is why we have taken action against them and are supporting further action.

Secretary Clinton made the remark, a day after the U.S Embassy in Nairobi issued an ‘Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens’ which states:

This is to inform U.S. citizens residing in or visiting Kenya that the U.S. Embassy in Kenya has received credible information of an imminent threat of terrorist attacks directed at prominent Kenyan facilities and areas where foreigners are known to congregate, such as malls and night clubs. The Embassy has taken measures to limit official U.S. government travel to Kenya and U.S. citizens should take this information into account when planning travel and consider deferring travel at this time. The U.S. Embassy will continue to monitor the security situation in Kenya and provide updated information as it becomes available. This notice expires on December 1, 2011.

Update: CNN reported a few hours ago:

A Kenyan man pleaded guilty Wednesday to being a member of the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab and was charged with causing grievous bodily harm in a grenade attack on a crowded bus station Monday.

Police said they found an arms cache with the man, identified as Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, also known as Mohamed Seif.

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said authorities were tracking him even before the attacks.

Earlier Wednesday, Mutua said twin grenade attacks in Nairobi earlier this week were not the work of Al-Shabaab.

"It was two young guys inspired by Al-Shabaab," he said, "but not directed by Al-Shabaab leadership."

Mutua said authorities had arrested one suspect and that they hope to arrest the second soon.

*******************

Related posts:

• Nairobi: Two terror attacks in a day
• US, France bombing Somalia? France to help Kenya in logistics
• Al-Shabaab killed Kenyan soldiers [Map of troop movement]
• Updates on Kenyan Army in Somalia and more
• Kenyan Army 100 km inside Somalia – ‘Operation Linda Nchi’

Go to the Kenya archive, Somalia archive  or Check the drop-down lists at the top of the page to find related posts.