Kenyan, Somali forces hit al-Shabaab

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MOGADISHU, Somalia, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Somali military officials said pro-government forces drove al-Shabaab militants from their positions with the help of Kenyan military forces.

Somali forces said they scored a victory against al-Shabaab militants near the southern border with Kenya. A Somali military spokesman told the BBC that 36 al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the attack and Kenyan forces were using social networking sites to warn nearby villages of more assaults.

"We are saying that people should be careful in not mixing up with al-Shabaab," the spokesman said. "That is our message."

Somali officials said a weekend airstrike by the Kenyan military killed 10 al-Shabaab fighters. The Dutch bureau of Doctors without Borders, however, said at least five people, including three children, were killed when a camp for the internally displaced was bombed.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a regional commander for al-Shabaab, told the BBC, however, that his fighters ambushed a Kenyan military convoy just inside the Somali border.

"The mujahedin fighters destroyed several of the military trucks in the convoy," he said.

The Kenyan military launched a campaign against al-Shabaab following a series of high-profile kidnappings along the northern border with Somalia.