Somalia: US soldier killed by an Islamic terrorist group

A US Special Forces soldier was killed Friday (June 8th) in an attack by Islamist terrorist group identify as Shebabs in southern Somalia.

At least five other soldiers, including a Somali, were wounded, according to Africom, the US Command for Africa.

Since 2017, Washington has intensified its operations in the country, mainly through airstrikes against the Shebabs. This human loss is the second, in less than two years, for US forces on Somali soil.

The attack took place on Friday around 15:00 on a military outpost under construction, about fifty kilometers north of the town of Kismayo in the Jubaland region.

Various sources speak of several explosions, shots fed with small arms then mortar fire while the wounded were evacuated.

According to a statement by Africom, US soldiers were on a training mission of about 800 members of the Somali and Kenyan forces as part of their military cooperation in the country.

The purpose of the operation was to repel the shebabs and free villages from their control, in this area where the presence and influence of Islamists are strong.

The Shebabs have also quickly claimed the attack, according to the site Intelligence Group, specializing in the monitoring of Islamist websites.

For his part, President Donald Trump expressed in a tweet his condolences to the family of the dead soldier and those wounded, calling them hero.

Already in May, a member of the Navy had been killed in an attack in the Lower Shabelle region, further north. It was the first American loss on Somali soil since the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 when 18 American soldiers lost their lives.