Kenya on alert as Somalia fighting nears border

KENYAN soldiers and helicopters beefed up defences at the Somali border yesterday after Ethiopian warplanes and ground forces attacked fleeing Islamists on the other side of the frontier.

The Islamic Courts Council, which left its last stronghold on Monday after two weeks of war with Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian armour, has pledged to fight on after melting into the hills between the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu and Kenya.

The Somali interim government is seeking to install itself in the capital, breaking out from the provincial outpost of Baidoa, which had been threatened when the Islamists took over much of southern Somalia in June.

Residents of Liboi, a Kenyan border post, said they saw Ethiopian fighter jets and helicopter gunships flying over the Somali town of Doble, 25 km (15 miles) away, late on Tuesday.

“When we heard the gunshots we panicked, although we knew it could be these groups fighting across the border,” said Liboi businessman Abdi Rage.

Kenyan reinforcements, driving in trucks and armoured vehicles and flying in helicopters, were put on high alert.

Nairobi sealed the border after the Somali government urged it to stop leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council or foreign jihadist supporters escaping.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his forces will stay in Somalia for a few more weeks to help the government pacify the Horn of Africa nation.

Both have called for international peacekeepers to be sent without delay. Uganda has provisionally offered a battalion, and President Yoweri Museveni is due to hold talks on Somalia with his counterpart in Addis Ababa today.