afrol News, 16 October - Following a recent offer by Kenya to train Somali forces, Islamists have responded with a threat to launch an attack on Kenyan territory if it goes ahead with plan.

According to reports, Kenya had offered to train 10,000 Somali government troops in a bid to boost capacity to deal with insurgency and bring back law and order in that country.

"We will order all our holy warriors to start jihadi war inside Kenya," Islamists spokesman Sheikh Muktar Robow, was quoted by BBC.

Threat has come as fresh violence errupted Somali capital, Mogadishu against government troops and their Ethiopian allies as well as African Union peacekeepers, which is said to have claimed at least five lives.

Some Islamists insurgents have refused to join or observe Somalia's peace negotiations, saying unless Ethiopian troops pull out, they will continue attacks.

Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi has however said his country is yet to review its position, but would stay longer for restoration of peace.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since toppling of president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and government only has total control on few patches of the country.

Ethiopian troops helped the government push Islamist forces from control of central and southern Somalia in late 2006, triggering an insurgency.

While violence is surging in Somalia and almost having crippled humanitarian services, some more than three million Somalis are said to be in need of emergency food aid, with more than a million said to be displaced from capital only this year.

By staff writer

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