20110228
reuters

ISIOLO, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan and Ethiopian troops could attack Somali rebel group al Shabaab inside the Horn of Africa nation following the rebel's latest threat to strike at Kenya, security sources said on Monday.

The al Shabaab group, which claims ties to al Qaeda and has been waging a four-year insurgency against Somalia's government, said on Sunday it would strike at neighbouring Kenya for training Somali government forces and allowing Ethiopian troops to operate from its towns.

Tens of thousands of Kenyans have been fleeing a border town after shells fired during fighting on the Somali side of the frontier landed near a hospital and a police station on the Kenyan side. An official with a group representing aid organisations said one Kenyan had died and 20 had been wounded.

The al Shabaab militia has been stung after Somali forces backed by government-friendly militia struck at the insurgents' strongholds in the capital Mogadishu and in southern Somalia, where the rebels control the border town of Balad Hawa, a stone's throw away from the Kenyan town of Mandera and Ethiopia.

Somali troop numbers have been bolstered by the deployment of hundreds of new recruits trained in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The new government offensive has seen Somali forces claw back parts of Mogadishu.

Fleeing residents said Mandera resembled a military camp.

"We expect a major offensive any moment from tonight," said a Kenya military officer at the frontier with Somalia.