Kenyan airstrikes kill 11 civilians in Somalia

Kenyan fighter jets have pounded a strategic town in southern Somalia held by al-Shabab militants several times, killing at least eleven civilians and several members of al-Shabab, Press TV reports. Local residents said that two fighter jets struck two locations in the village of Daytubako, situated 135 kilometers (84 miles) north of Kismayo -- a strategically important port city on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast -- on Saturday. Ali Mohamed, a resident of the town, said that five pastoralists were killed as they were fetching water from the well near the al-Shabab base. A number of al-Shabab militants were also killed in the aerial attack. Kenya has beefed up security along its border with Somalia since it dispatched soldiers over its border into the conflict-plagued country last October to pursue al-Shabab militants, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners on its territory. However, al-Shabab has denied involvement in the kidnappings. Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has said his transitional government is opposed to Kenya’s military incursion into Somalia. There are indications that the United States and France are aiding the Kenyan operation. Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.