Kenya Reportedly Didn’t Warn U.S. of Somalia Incursion

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Source: NY Times

As fierce fighting spread to new areas of Somalia on Thursday, American officials said they had been taken by surprise by Kenya’s recent march into Somalia to battle Islamist militants.

Kenya is one of the closest American allies in Africa, frequently cooperating on military and intelligence issues, and American officials have branded Islamist militants in Somalia a serious threat to the United States.

But Kenya’s sudden incursion into Somalia over the weekend caught the United States “on its heels,” one American official said Thursday. A former American official with experience in Africa said Kenyan officers had given their American counterparts “zero” information before the offensive started.

A senior American officer said there were no American military advisers or trainers with the Kenyan troops, but the officer would not comment on whether the United States was providing intelligence or reconnaissance information to the Kenyans.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/africa/americans-given-no-warning-of-kenyas-march-into-somalia-officials-say.html

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