Craters mark Somali Kenyan border

By Karen Allen
BBC News, Kenyan Somali border

Ethiopian troops bombed vehicles as the Islamists fled south

It is 1530 local time (1230 GMT) and on the Kenyan Somali border there is the faint rumble of fighter jets above our heads.

This crossing point at Liboi is normally the transit route for people traversing the border. Now it has been sealed by the Kenyan military and police.

No refugee escaping the violence is allowed to pass through for fear that Islamists may slip in unnoticed.

About 18km (10 miles) from here there are reports of dozens of casualties from the town of Doble, west of Afmadow.

The numbers are impossible to verify but unconfirmed reports from the ground put the figures at between 25 and 70.

Livestock lost

Abdul Atif, a driver who regularly travels across to Doble, tells us there is nowhere to hide for suspected al-Qaeda operatives. It is populated by herdsmen - pastoralists who have now lost large numbers of livestock.

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But, like many other Somalis, Abdul Atif worries about the repercussions of the Ethiopian and US air strikes.

In the Kenyan border town of Liboi, aside from unprecedented numbers of Kenyan security forces, life continues as normal in the corrugated, iron-roofed shops.

There is little opposition to the presence of westerners on the streets. Many of the Somalis who live here have family across the border whose fate remains unknown.

Somalis are used to war but the re-entry of the Americans more than a decade after the events of "Black Hawk Down" marks a turning point. Many are concerned about what the future holds.

Further south, along Kenya's 400km border with Somalia, at Amuma, there are signs of the Islamists' recent retreat.

A trail of heavy weapons, mortars, shells and mines are strewn across the muddy earth. A series of vast craters 7ft (2m) deep record the moment when Ethiopian troops bombed their vehicles as they fled further south.

No-one knows if these men survived Monday's air strikes with US forces.

But here, the authorities in Kenya - though tacitly approving the action to wipe out al-Qaeda - are wary of being dragged into their neighbour's bloody war.