NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Kenyan military aircraft crashed in the region of the southern Somali city of Kismayu on Thursday due to technical problems after a combat mission, Kenyan newspapers reported.
Troops from Kenya Defence Force, which form part of the Africa Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, are deployed in Kismayu, a port they recaptured from al Shabaab Islamist rebels in 2012.
"KDF aircraft while returning from a combat mission in Jamaame, (SOUTHERN (SO.NY)Somalia), developed technical problems and crashed in the general area of Kismayu,? a statement by KDF spokesman Colonel David Obonyo said in a statement, reported by the Daily Nation newspaper on its website.
It said he did not say if there were any casualties.
Another newspaper, The Standard carried a similar report.
Reuters could not immediately reach the KDF spokesman for confirmation.
The report follows two attacks in the past two weeks by al Shabaab militants on Kenya's northern border region in which more than 60 non-Muslim Kenyan civilians were killed.
(Reporting by Edmund Blair and Drazen Jorgic; Editing by James Macharia)
