Kenya Military Invades Al-Qaeda Held Somalia
Under the radar in the news is the recently military operation called, Sledgehammer, conducted by thousands of Kenyan military troops. The main objective of the operation is to destroy and remove most of the al-Qaeda allied, al Shabaab, whose extreme Muslim views have controlled parts of Somalia on the Horn of Africa.
The operation has been well executed with a combined naval\air and invasion from the sea to seize the port of Kismayo, which was their last bastion and where the port was used to unload weapons and drugs. The city has 180,000 and many of the locals fled as the battle roared. Kismayo is the last to fall, Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has been under a series of battles from Ugandan troops with some success. It is unclear just how many al-Shabaab soldiers were actually in Kismayo, some accounts indicate not more than 500 and concentrated around the port. Under the intense weight of the combined African military forces, the Shabaab had little choice but to retreat into the hinterland.