Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Somalia’s Islamist group al-Shabaab threatened on Wednesday to
increase militant action in Kenya, after the country refused to withdraw
its troops from Somalia, reported Agence France-Presse. The
al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for last week’s attack
on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, in which at least 67 people died,
with 39 more listed as missing by the Red Cross.
“We will strike
Kenyans where it hurts the most, turn their cities into graveyards and
rivers of blood will flow in Nairobi,” al-Shabaab said in a recent
statement.
“The Kenyan government’s decision to keep its invading
force in Somalia is an indication that they haven’t yet learnt any
valuable lessons from the Westgate attacks,” the extremists added,
warning that Kenya was
“inviting unprecedented levels of insecurity, bloodshed and destruction.”
Kenya’s
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday said troops had been sent to
Somalia to restore order to their neighbor and would remain there until
this was achieved.
“We will not be intimated, we will not be cowed,” Kenyatta said. “We will stay there until they bring order to their nation.”
In
reaction to Kenyan Defense Force’s (KDF) decision, al-Shabaab said it
was “fully determined to intensify attacks inside Kenya until the last
KDF boots exit Somali soil,” saying it had the “right to defend our land
and our people from enemy aggression.”