NAIROBI, Kenya —Kenyan warplanes bombed militant camps in Somalia, officials said Monday, following a vow by President Uhuru Kenyatta to respond “in the fiercest way possible” to a massacre of college students by al-Shabab extremists.
The airstrikes Sunday and Monday targeted the Gedo region of western Somalia, directly across the border from Kenya, said Col. David Obonyo of the Kenyan military.
The al-Shabab camps, which were used to store arms and for logistical support, were destroyed, but it was not possible to determine the number of casualties because of poor visibility, he said.
The Somalia-based militant group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack at Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya in which militants killed 148 people, most of them students.
Hawa Yusuf, who lives in a village near the town of Beledhawa that is close to the Kenyan-Somali border, said the warplanes “were hovering around for a few minutes, then started bombing.” She didn’t know if there were any casualties, she said by phone.
Another resident of the village, Ali Hussein, said the airstrikes hit a grassland “where nomads often take their animals for grazing.”
“We are not aware of any military camps located there. They dropped bombs on the whole area,” he added.
Al-Shabab fighters often use shrubby areas to conceal fighters and vehicles.
Airstrikes and other conventional military operations have hurt al-Shabab, but analysts say better intelligence is needed to thwart an extremist group that has proven effective in infiltrating civilian populations and carrying out attacks on so-called “soft” targets in urban areas.
The extremist group said the Garissa attack was in reprisal for Kenya sending troops into Somalia in 2011 to kill its members who took part in cross-border raids and kidnappings.
Kenya’s troops in Somalia are part of an African Union force and are also shoring up the beleaguered Somali government.
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