BLOGS
Al Shabaab kills U.S soldier, wounds four others in an attack
United States Soldier in Somalia, (Courtesy)
SOMALIA—Somalia’s rag tag group Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for an attack in which a U.S. commando was killed and four others were wounded when they came under fire in the country.
While working with 800 local Somali forces and Kenyan soldiers, the US service members came under attack from insurgent forces in the area of Jubaland by “mortar and small-arms fire at approximately 2:45pm Mogadishu time,” according to a statement from US Africa Command. One partner force member was also injured but the statement did not indicate if the soldier was Somali or Kenyan.
Traditionally, US presidents have been wary of intervening in Somalia since 18 special forces soldiers died fighting militias in Mogadishu in 1993, a battle dramatised in the film Black Hawk Down.
“We attacked a military base, killed one U.S. soldier, two Kenyan soldiers and nine Somali soldiers from Jubbaland state. We also injured four U.S. soldiers,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters on late Friday.
Kenyan military spokesman David Obonyo told Reuters that its forces were not involved in any operations in Somalia on Friday
Al Shabaab is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on its interpretation of Islamic law.
While the group is still a threat, Somali forces coupled with the African Union forces have mostly removed fighters from larger cities in Somalia, as it did in Mogadishu in 2011.
The troops had been on a mission to clear al Shabaab from contested areas as well as villages the militants controlled, “and establish a permanent combat outpost” to expand the reach of the Somali state, according to the U.S. statement.
The soldier’s identity has not yet been released publicly. He is the second member of the US military to have been killed in Somalia in as many years.
It was the first known US combat death in Africa since an ambush in Niger in October,
