By Our Online Team

9^th Jan 2012: The Kenyan government has warned of an imminent terrorist attack from what the hawkish former US President George Bush would probably have called “an axis of evil” involving the Somali based Islamic militants of Al-Shabab and the more established global Al-Qaeda terror network.

The Kenyan authorities issued the terror alert on Saturday 7^th January and particularly warned that Western tourists visiting the Kenyan capital Nairobi may be targeted.  Kenya became a prime target for revenge terrorist attacks when it joined Uganda and Burundi AMISOM troops in the fight against Al-Shabab following a spate of abductions and killings of Western nationals on its territory late last year

The Kenyan terror alert was thus sent to major Western capitals, a fact which immediately prompted the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to update its travel advice for its citizens living in Kenya and those intending to travel to Kenya in the near future.

“…The Kenyan authorities have alerted the public to a heightened threat from terrorist attacks in Nairobi. We believe that terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate and target Kenyan institutions as well as places where expatriates and foreign travellers gather, such as hotels, shopping centres and beaches. ” the British Foreign Office said in a statement.

Consequently, the British government advised British nationals “…to exercise extra vigilance and caution in public places and at public events.”  In its statement, the British government said the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office will keep its Kenyan travel advice under constant review and that it will continue to monitor the situation closely and make further updates as necessary.

Kenya claims to have killed 60 Al-Shabab fighters

Meanwhile, on the same day of the terror alert, a Kenyan military spokesman said they had killed at least 60 fighters during airstrikes that targeted a base used by Al-Shabab, the same Islamic militants group that it claims is now linked to Al-Qaeda.  “…the levels of casualties were very high in air strikes on Friday,” Colonel Cyrus Oguna, the Kenyan army spokesman told reporters on Saturday, adding the bombing raids hit rebel positions in Garbaharey town in southern Somalia’s Gedo region.

Colonel Oguna said their provisional assessment indicates that al-Shabab lost 60 or more fighters, and more than 50 were injured.  He also said nine “technicals” – pick-up trucks mounted with guns – were also destroyed.  Oguna said the raids were prompted by a tip-off that al-Shabab gunmen had gathered in the area to refuel their vehicles.

Al-Shabab has however repeatedly dismissed Kenyan casualty reports as lies and Uganda Correspondent has not been able to independently verify the claims by either side.  Al-Shabab has been fighting against Somalia’s weak UN-backed Transitional Federal Government [TFG] for years and it believed that they control large parts of central and southern Somalia.

The African Union force AMISOM, which is made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and lately Kenya, is defending the fragile TFG from attacks by al-Shabab in the war-torn capital of Somalia Mogadishu.  END:  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.