{Kenya Defence Forces, KDF, confirmed on Friday that its combat aircraft which crashed in southern Somalia on Thursday after developing mechanical problems, came down within a territory controlled by Al-Shabaab, who later set it on fire.}<\/p>\n
KDF spokesman Col. David Obonyo said the fate of the pilot remained unknown.<\/p>\n
He said the aircraft crashed at 1215 GMT in Jamaame, Southern Somalia.<\/p>\n
\u201cA KDF aircraft while returning from a combat mission in Somalia developed technical problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pilot of the aircraft made a distress call to his wing-man, the pilot in a second aircraft.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegrettably, the aircraft crashed within enemy territory, Al-Shabaab militia reached the site of the crashed aircraft and set it on fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fate of the pilot remains unknown. He is still missing,\u201d Mr. Obonyo said.<\/p>\n
The military aircraft, which had been on a combat mission, came down in the area of the southern port city of Kismayu.<\/p>\n
The area is where Kenyan troops were deployed as part of Africa Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), trying to stabilise the Horn of Africa nation.<\/p>\n
Mr. Obonyo\u2019s remarks came hours after the insurgents claimed that they shot the aircraft down using a missile.<\/p>\n
The military spokesman said the two aircraft were from a successful mission, where they destroyed Araare, an Al-Shabaab base which had been confirmed by intelligence as an operation and logistics base.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to our sources in Somalia, several Al-Shabaab militia including foreign fighters were killed, and many others were injured and equipment was destroyed during the air strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chief of the Defence Forces and the entire KDF family join the family of the missing hero during this moment of anxiety,\u201d Mr. Obonyo added.<\/p>\n
He said the incident only served to reaffirm their \u201cresolve to continue pursuing and destroying the Al-Shabaab in order to preserve the territorial integrity of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenya launched cross-border incursion into southern Somalia in 2011 to subdue Al-Shabaab that the east African nation blamed for raids and kidnappings particularly on its northern region.<\/p>\n
Kenya had since been beleaguered by a spate of attacks by the insurgents.<\/p>\n
The Kenyan troops had been moving in all sectors in southern Somalia after making several advances on key towns following a fierce battle with the insurgents.<\/p>\n
Al-Shabaab militia and their foreign fighters are reported to have links with the Al-Qaida network. (Xinhua\/NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Kenya Defence Forces, KDF, confirmed on Friday that its combat aircraft which crashed in southern Somalia on Thursday after developing mechanical problems, came down within a territory controlled by Al-Shabaab, who later set it on fire.} KDF spokesman Col. David Obonyo said the fate of the pilot remained unknown. He said the aircraft crashed at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000055329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000055329,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17720.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17720.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17720.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17720.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17720.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17720.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000055329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17720"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17720"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}