Somalia: Kenyan military kills 3 civilians from same family

BIRMIIL, Somalia - Parents in shock and devastated after all three of their rising sons were brutally killed by the Kenyan defence forces [KDF] in Gedo, south of Somalia on Thursday, Garowe Online reports.

Local residents in Birmiil, a small rural village near Geriley town, who spoke to Garowe Online on condition of anonymity said KDF executed 3 brothers and wounded 4 others after storming their house, and subsequently shot them dead indiscriminately.

The villagers described the horrific shooting as a revenge act for a roadside bomb attack that ripped through a Kenyan military convoy in the area, causing unconfirmed casualties on the soldiers.

The IED blast bore the hallmarks of the Islamic militant group, Al-Shabab, which has carried out a wave of bombings against KDF on Somali-Kenyan border in recent months.

The wounded victims are said to be in critical conditions as the village is remote and lacking proper health facility to provide life-saving medical treatment, according to Yusuf Ahmed, a local traditional elder.

Until now, Somali authorities in the region and as well as the Kenyan military have not commented on the incident, which was the latest in series of atrocities committing by the KDF serving under AMISOM.

Kenya troops acrossed the border in late 2011 in a shock move it said was aimed at stopping kidnappings against aid workers on its soil by the Somalia-based al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab.

GAROWE ONLINE