Kenya air raid targets al-Shabab militants in Somalia

At least nine people have been killed and 50 wounded in a Kenyan air raid targeting al-Shabab militants in southern Somalia. A Kenyan military spokesman told the BBC the planes had targeted the outskirts of the town of Jilib. He said 10 fighters of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group had been killed and dismissed reports of civilian deaths as "al-Shabab propaganda". Kenyan forces have moved across the Somalia border to target the group. The country blames al-Shabab for frequent assaults on its security forces in the border province of North Eastern as well as a spate of kidnappings. "We received intelligence that a top al-Shabab leader was to visit a camp in Jilib so we conducted an air raid," Kenya army spokesman Maj Emmanuel Chirchir told the BBC. "Confirmation from the human intelligence is that 10 al-Shabab fighters were killed and 47 others wounded," he added. He said that no civilian camp had been attacked. Earlier reports said that displaced civilians had been killed in the raid. "This is all al-Shabab propaganda," he said. The hardline al-Shabab group, which controls much of southern Somalia, denies carrying out kidnappings and has warned Kenya to withdraw its troops from Somalia or face bloody battles. The Islamist group is locked in a battle with the transitional government for control of parts of the country currently outside of is power, particularly in the capital Mogadishu. The government controls very little territory, but does have several militant groups around the country it regards as allies, and it is backed by the international community.