Kenyan planes strike Al Shabab: At least 10 dead
Somali refugees, displaced from their homes in southern Somalia by a famine that is ravaging the horn of Africa region, wait at a registration center at the Dagahaley refugee site on Aug. 2, 2011.
Kenyan fighter jets have bombed the southern Somali town of Jilib, Voice of America reports.
"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 BBC News.
Al Shabab has been behind a recent series of kidnappings of foreigners and other attacks in Kenya.
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Two weeks ago, Kenyan troops invaded southern Somalia, an area largely controlled by Al Shabab, to disrupt the Al Qaeda-linked organization.
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At least 10 people were killed and at least 45 people were wounded in the airstrike. The Kenya army claims those killed were militants, BBC News reports.
However, local officials said civilians at the camp for internally displaced people that Al Shabab militants were visiting also died, VOA reports. The militants were reportedly there to distribute food.
Chirchir said these reports were "Al Shabab propaganda,” BBC News reports.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement on Sunday that its medical personnel were treating dozens of civilians injured in the air raid, the BBC reports.
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