African Jihad Spreading: Al-Shabaab in Deadly Kenyan Border Attack

Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda – and now Kenya – it seems that no African nation is off-limits for Islamic Jihad:Kenyan security forces on the border with Somalia have clashed with suspected members of the al-Shabab group, officials and residents said.Wilson Murungi, the commissioner of Lagdera, said al-Shabab fighters ambushed a Kenyan border patrol and wounded one officer [Updated - one officer injured and one dead - Ed].“The attack was not a raid inside [Kenya]. Our officers were attacked as they conducted a normal patrol. The armed group fired at them on the other side of the border,” Murungi said.Residents near the Liboi border post in Kenya, located 18km west of the Somali border, said there was a fierce exchange of fire between the two sides.Both Kenya and al-Shabab were reported to be sending reinforcements to the area along the Kenyan border district of Lagdera on Tuesday. Such skirmishes have not previously escalated into any wider violence.Al-Shabab, an armed opposition group with links to al-Qaeda, controls much of southern Somalia bordering northeastern Kenya and is fighting to topple the UN-backed government in the Horn of Africa nation.

Local fears
The armed group staged its first attack outside Somalia on July 11, when it carried out twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, leaving at least 74 people dead.However, there have been fears for some time in Kenya that the violence could spill over the long and porous border between the two countries.Yusuf Ali Mohamed, a resident in the Somali town of Dhobley, told the Reuters news agency: “Here in Dhobley, al-Shabab are calling people to jihad against Kenya and deploying more fighters to the border.
“Local people fear new fighting between the two sides.”
Kenya tightened security along its border with Somalia in February in anticipation of a government offensive against al-Shabab and other anti-government groups, which has yet to materialise. There were fears that Somali fighters might try and enter Kenya if attacked at home.Kenya has twice been hit by al-Qaeda-linked attacks and while it cannot take part in the African Union peacekeeping in Somalia because it is a neighbour, the government has pledged to do what it can to prevent the chaos next door spreading.This is no opportunistic attack, or ‘isolated incident’ (the mainstream media’s favourite ‘play-down’ line.Al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda are already active in Kenya – not only at the margins, but deep in the capital. Eastleigh, a suburb of Nairobi, is already well established as a hub of Somali Islamist activity, as we pointed out last summer.By now, It should be becoming clear to even the most casual observer that Islamic supremacism is not confined to the Middle East. From Europe to Australasia, the US to South America, the Far East and China to the former Soviet ”Stans’; Islamists are striving to spread terror across the globe.
It’s just that most of the ‘globe’ is in denial about the fact.Source: Reuters/Al-Jazeera]
Al Shabaab injure GSU officer in attack