Somali militants threaten Kenya with revenge

Islamist militants in Somalia are calling for "mujahideen trained by Osama" to help them in the fight against Kenya.

Hundreds of Kenyan troops are in southern Somalia preparing for battle against the Islamists, claiming they plan to "destroy in the shortest time possible" Somalia"s al-Qaeda-linked group, al Shabaab.

But the militants claim they are going to carry out "huge blasts" in retaliation for military invasion, reports the Financial Times.

There have already been two small grenade explosions in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, which police suspect were prompted by the military invasion of Somalia.

Yesterday four men died when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their vehicle close to the Kenya-Somalia border, but police sources said that the attack was more likely to be banditry than an Islamist revenge mission.

Kenya blames Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab for a spate of abductions on its territory.

Last week, the French authorities said a Frenchwoman suffering from cancer who was kidnapped from Kenya by Somali gunmen earlier in the month had died.

Other foreigners abducted from Kenya and being held in Somalia include a Briton Judith Tebbutt who was abducted from a coastal resort after her husband was killed.

By Diane Evans