Video shows carnage of attack on Kenyan peacekeepers

By Andrew Ross

NAIROBI, Kenya

The African Union force in Somalia on Thursday released footage from the site of a battle that saw dozens of Kenyan troops killed in an attack by al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Smoke could be seen rising from charred vehicles bearing the marks of rocket attacks in the video released by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Scorched foliage marked the site of the former camp at El-Adde in southwest Somalia.

Maj. Gen. Nakibus Lakara, deputy commander of AMISOM, visited the camp nearly two weeks after the attack that killed an unspecified number of Kenyan soldiers.

The first official images also showed the point where a car bomb exploded on the camp perimeter of the camp, causing a huge fire that left nothing but razor wire. The footage, which lasts just over 3 minutes, showed defensive trenches and empty green sandbags scattered around the base.

Lakara said AMISOM’s primary mandate was to destroy al-Shabaab, the group that has claimed responsibility for the Jan. 15 attack. The militants claim to have killed 63 Kenyan soldiers and captured 14 others. The bodies of 31 soldiers have been brought back to Kenya to date.

“AMISOM isn’t a peacekeeping mission but a war-fighting mission, so from deployment you know you’ve come to fight and in a fight of course there are casualties,” Lakara said.

“This is the time to ensure that support is consolidated, that we’re invigorated, we’re emboldened to pursue this enemy to wherever he goes.”

Al-Shabaab emerged from the chaos of Somalia's civil war and has carried out a number of attacks in Kenya in recent years, most notably the university attack last April that killed 148 and the 2013 assault on a Nairobi shopping center that killed 67.