NAIROBI: Kenyan troops killed 52 alShabaab fighters in an attack on the militants´ camp in southernSomalia on Friday, a military spokesman said.
Colonel Joseph Owuoth, spokesman for Kenya Defence Forces,said the incident happened in Badhaadhe in Lower Juba.
Rifles, three improvised explosive devices and bomb makingmaterials were recovered in the assault, he said.
"The intelligence led operation was executed aftersurveillance assets sighted al Shabaab terrorist concentrationon the location.
Ground troops supported by mortar and artilleryfire were employed to neutralise the camp thereafter," thestatement said.
"Following the operation, the initial assessment indicatesthat 52 terrorists were killed while others fled with injuries.
"Al Shabaab, whose assessment of casualties often differsmarkedly from official versions, could be immediately reachedfor comment.
Kenya has thousands of its troops in the African UnionMission in Somalia (AMISOM) to help curb al Shabaab and improvesecurity as part of a reconstruction drive after two decades ofcivil war that shattered the country.
Kenya initially sent troops into Somalia in 2011 after aseries of attacks on Kenyan soil by the al Qaeda-affiliated alShabaab.
The Islamist group has been fighting for years to impose itsown harsh interpretation of Islam on Somalia.
It once controlled much of Somalia and wants to topple theWestern-backed government in Mogadishu and drive out thepeacekeeping force, which is also made up of soldiers fromDjibouti, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia and other African countries.
In January, al Shabaab said its fighters killed dozens ofKenyan troops when the group attacked a remote military base inSomalia, while Kenya´s army said nine soldiers had died and 70militants were killed.
In January 2016, al Shabaab said it had killed more than 100Kenyan soldiers in El Adde, a camp near the border with Kenya.
The military did not give details of casualties in thatattack, but Kenyan media reports suggested a toll of thatmagnitude.