KISMAYO, Somalia Nov 20 (Garowe Online) - Islamist hardliners who control vast territory in central and southern Somalia have threatened to attack targets inside Kenya if the Kenyan government deploys its army into Somalia, Puntland-based Radio Garowe reported Thursday.

Abdigani Sheikh Mohamed, deputy chairman of the Islamist al Shabaab administration in Kismayo, told a press conference that the Islamist group opposes all foreign troops in the country.

“If Kenya sends soldiers into Somalia, then we will recognize Kenya as an invader like Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi,” said the senior Islamist official.

Uganda and Burundi are the only African Union member-states to sends peacekeepers to Mogadishu.

A regional conference this week held in Ethiopia declared that the Kenyan army will send a battalion of peacekeepers to bolster AU forces in Somalia. READ: Ethiopia won't stay in Somalia "indefinitely"

But Sheikh Mohamed accused the Kenyan government of “extraditing” Somali nationals to Ethiopia, where the suspects are interrogated by American intelligence agents.

He vowed that Islamist fighters will “wage attacks inside Kenya” if Nairobi goes ahead with the planned deployment, but did not elaborate.

In August, al Shabaab guerrillas successfully captured the port city of Kismayo, 500km south of Mogadishu, and have since seized parts of Lower Shabelle region near the capital.

Further, the al Shabaab fighters now control most of Gedo, a key region located along the Somali-Kenya border.

The Ethiopian government has shown willingness to withdraw from Somalia, despite continued territorial gains by Islamist factions this year.

But a recent report suggests that top government leaders in Addis Ababa disagree over the best policy to pursue in Somalia. READ: Ethiopian leaders divided over Somalia policy

Source: Garowe Online