Somali extremists say they captured some Kenyan soldiers

“Be patient, information will be availed to you”.

“I would like to extend my honest condolences to the families of the gallant soldiers who lost their lives, and to the people and government of Kenya”.

“Mujahideen fighters… stormed the Kenyan base in the early hours of Friday morning, killing more than 100 Kenyan invaders, seizing their weapons and military vehicles and even capturing Kenyan soldiers alive”, al Shabaab said in a statement.

She said on Sunday, when several injured soldiers arrived, that the Kenya Defence Forces set up counselling centres in Eldoret, Gilgil and at the Armed Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi.

Mwathethe vowed to continue pushing back against al-Shabab.

Kenyan Defense Secretary Raychelle Omamo told reporters Sunday that there is an ongoing search, rescue and recovery operation in the area where the attack happened. “We are trying to search for them, rescue them and recover them”, Mwathethe said without saying if they were captured.

The sources also said Kenya’s military planners are now thinking of preparing better fortifications against VBIEDs after realizing that Al Shabaab has, increasingly used this tactic borrowed from the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and Al Qaida in the Arabic Peninsular to deadly effect.

AMISOM, together with the Kenyan government have however not given the statistics on the casualties in last weeks attacks. But al-Shabab said more than 100 Kenyan soldiers were killed, AFP reported.

Mwathethe said the attack was launched against a company-sized force of soldiers, without making clear if this was the size of the Kenyan contingent in the area or the mixed force.

However, both the Kenyan government and AMISOM officials have disputed the figure, terming it a propaganda.

Fighters from the group exchanged gunfire with AU peacekeepers according to a Somali military official.

Al-Shabaab said that the latest attack comes as response to Kenyan occupation of parts of Somalia and its military persecution of innocent Muslims in Kenya.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday that “some of our patriots in uniform” were killed.