An American special operations soldier has been killed in an attack in Somalia that also wounded four other US military personnel and one Somali soldier.
The attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants occurred on Friday in Somalia’s southern Jubaland province, where a small joint US-Somali outpost came under small arms and mortar fire, US defense officials said.
Al-Shabaab, Al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia, boasted of mounting a ‘fierce attack’ resulting in the casualties on the outskirts of the town of Kismayo, according to a transmission intercepted by the SITE Intelligence Group.
US officials were unable to immediately confirm who carried out the attack. The American forces were reportedly fighting with air cover from an armed surveillance drone.
The attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants (file photo) occurred on Friday in Somalia’s southern Jubaland province, where a small joint US-Somali outpost came under fire
Roughly 500 US troops are stationed in Somalia as part of an ongoing mission to assist the country’s national security forces in counter-terrorism operations.
Mostly composed of special operators such as Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders, the US forces in Somalia have conducted frequent raids and drone strikes on Shabaab training camps throughout Somalia.
It follows the death of four US soldiers in Niger last October in an ambush attack that raised questions about the continuing role of American forces in Africa.
The most recent US casualty in Somalia occurred last year, when a member of the Navy SEALs was killed in a nighttime attack in Somalia.
That marked the first US military combat death there since the infamous events of ‘Black Hawk Down’ in 1993, when 18 American servicemen died in what is called the Battle of Mogadishu.
The sun sets over the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Thursday. For more than a decade, US special forces have been operating in the country assisting with counter-terrorism
American forces have been back operating in Somalia for more than a decade. Since 2007, Al-Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Somalia.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council warned that ‘internal and external pressures risk undermining Somalia’s political unity’ and expressed serious concern at the ongoing threats posed by Al-Shabaab.
Somalia, which borders restive Kenya and lies across the Gulf of Aden from conflict-wracked Yemen, began to fall apart in 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
Years of conflict and attacks by al-Shabab, along with famine, shattered the country of some 12 million people. It has been trying to rebuild since establishing its first functioning transitional government in 2012.
Al-Shabab, which is fighting to impose Shariah law across Somalia, was pushed out of the capital, Mogadishu, and other major urban cities more than two years ago. But the extremist group still carries out suicide attacks across Somalia.