Somali rebels say shot down Kenyan military plane

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist group al Shabaab said it had shot down a Kenyan military plane on Thursday in southern Somalia, after Kenyan newspapers had reported that it crashed due to technical problems after a combat mission.

"We hit the Kenyan jet and downed it. It was bombing Bulaguduud town today," Al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said. "We hit it using a missile." The pilot was "burnt inside", he said.

(Reporting by Feisal Omar; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Angus MacSwan)