Most likely an unwise move. As this article points out, both foreign involvements in Somalia over the past 20 years have ended in humiliating withdrawals.
I’m sure that Kenya will not be able to seal its border with Somalia, so is going to be at serious risk of being on the receiving end of asymmetric warfare tactics.
There were other ways of dealing with the threat to its tourist industry from Somali gangs… this is going to make things a lot worse.
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Kenya’s foreign minister has told the BBC his country has sent troops into neighbouring Somalia to target the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.
Moses Masika Wetangula said Kenya was defending itself, after a spate of suspected al-Shabab kidnappings.
Witnesses described dozens of military vehicles pouring over the border, backed by planes and helicopters.
Reports say al-Shabab, which denies carrying out the abductions, has begun preparing militias to fight back.
Several Westerners have been seized in Kenya by suspected Somali militants and reportedly taken into Somalia.
Two Spanish aid workers were abducted from Kenya’s sprawling Dadaab refugee camp on Thursday.
A British woman and a French woman have been kidnapped from remote beach resorts over the past month, dealing a major blow to Kenya’s tourism industry.
There have been conflicting reports about possible perpetrators of the kidnappings - with some claiming al-Shabab had carried them out, and others saying pirate gangs could be the attackers.
After two decades of conflict, weapons are widely available in Somalia and the abductions could also be the work of another armed Somali group.
Mr Wetangula said the troops went across the border on the request of Somalia’s transitional government, which controls very little territory but is backed by the international community.
“What we are doing is in pursuit of a request by the government of Somalia and also our own interest as a country to fight a group that is terror-based,” he said.
Al-Shabab controls much of southern Somalia, and for years has been locked in combat with government forces and their allies from the African Union.
Mr Wetangula said Kenya was forced to act against al-Shabab after the cross-border kidnappings.
“If you are the Kenyan government or a Kenyan, what would you have done? Will you clap for [the kidnappers] and say they have done a good job? No. You must defend your country,” he said.
“You must defend the security of your people and in doing so, you have to go for these people where they are.”
Witnesses said tanks and up to 40 Kenyan vehicles carrying soldiers had passed through the Somali town of Dhobley, near the border, on Sunday.
Senior Somali military commander Abdi Yusuf told Reuters news agency that warplanes had attacked two al-Shabab bases in southern Somalia but could not confirm if the jets were Kenyan.
“I can’t identify the military aircraft, but our neighbour Kenya is fully supporting us militarily and our mission is to drive al-Shabab out of the region,” he said.
Previous foreign interventions in Somalia have ended in embarrassing withdrawals - the US in 1992 and Ethiopia in 2006.
Correspondents say many Kenyans will fear their country could be bogged down in a long, unwinnable conflict.
Al-Shabab leaders have already promised to fight Kenyan forces, and some reports say the group has declared a holy war and has begun mobilising their fighters.