AMISOM forces arrest 72 militants

Kenyan troops in the UN-backed Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said Tuesday they have arrested 72 suspected Al-Shabaab militants as pacification operations continue in the Horn of Africa nation after the capture of the port city of Kismayo.

Thursday, October 25, 2012
Kenya armed forces in an operation in Somalia. Net photo.

Kenyan troops in the UN-backed Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said Tuesday they have arrested 72 suspected Al-Shabaab militants as pacification operations continue in the Horn of Africa nation after the capture of the port city of Kismayo.Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said among those arrested on Sunday is a lady - Marianna Issa Mohammed - who was identified by residents of Kismayo as the Al-Shabaab women leader."A house to house search conducted on Oct. 21 led to the arrest of 72 suspected militants and a recovery of an assortment of weapons,” Oguna said in a statement released in Nairobi on Tuesday.KDF said relative peace was also steadily returning to the port city, once the bastion of the militants as residents appealed to the United Nations to lift ban on charcoal it imposed early this year.He said KDF and Somalia National Army (SNA) operating in Sector II in southern Somalia are continuing with pacification operations in the strategic port city."The local residents have been in support and collaborating with the forces towards pacification efforts,” Oguna said.