MOGADISHU - Kenyan fighter jets have attacked two bases belonging to Islamist al Shabaab insurgents in Somalia and killed at least 80 militants, African Union peacekeepers said Monday. The African Union Mission in Somalia, whose soldiers launched a new offensive against al Shabaab this year, did not say when the incidents took place.
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Kenya first sent its troops into neighboring Somalia in 2011 after several attacks inside its territory that it blamed on al Shabaab, and later joined the peacekeeping force. The militants have since carried out a string of assaults to punish Kenya for its intervention. Al Shabaab fighters killed at least 67 people in a raid on a Nairobi shopping mall last year. AMISOM said al Shabaab had lost control of more than 10 major towns in the new push by African troops. More than two decades of conflict have left Somalia in ruins, while al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has continued guerrilla-style attacks and suicide bombings.
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