'DNA tests needed' to identify Kenyan soldiers' bodiespublished at 14:32
Wanyama wa Chebusiri
BBC Africa, Nairobi
The uncertainty surrounding the number of Kenyan soldiers killed last Friday when al-Shabab fighters overran an African Union military base in south-western Somalia last Friday remains (see earlier post at 12:59).
Military chief Gen Samson Mwathethe told a tense press conference in the capital, Nairobi, that given the magnitude of the attack the army would only release figures after the investigation was complete.
Quote MessageDNA tests will have to be done on some of our fallen heroes
Gen Samson Mwathethe
He did give details of the three car bombs used by al-Shabab.
The base is on the outskirts of el-Ade and was made up of two military camps - one housing the Somalia national army and the other for a contingent of Kenyan troops.
The general said one vehicle exploded at by the gates of the Somali section, another at the entrance to the Kenyan side and a third in between the two camps.
The force of each of these three explosions was equivalent to the car bomb that ripped through the US embassy in 1998 - and he asked those present to imagine the scale of the destruction.

There is growing concern in Kenya, especially among relatives and friends over the whereabouts of their loved ones following the government’s failure to disclose the number of those who may have died, with al-Shabab claiming to have killed more than a hundred.