Car bomb explosion in Somalia leaves 5 soldiers dead, US officer injured
A car bomb explosion outside a military base in southern Somalia has left five Somali soldiers dead and a US officer seriously injured.
The Takfiri al-Shabab terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place on Monday in Jana Cabdalle village in the country’s southern region of Jubbaland.
Mohamed Ahmed Sabriye, director of communications of Jubbaland state palace who confirmed the deaths, said the car bomb exploded outside the base of Somali special forces trained by the US called Danab.
The bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the entrance to a military base in Janay Abdalla, a village about 60 kilometres (37 miles) outside the southern port city of Kismayo.
However, al-Shabab claimed that more people have been killed in the attack.
"We attacked US and Somali forces called Danab in Jana Cabdalle village with a suicide car bomb. We killed four US officers, and 16 Somali forces which they trained," the military operations spokesman of the al-Shabab group, Abdiasis Abu Musab, said in a statement.
"We also wounded 12 Somali soldiers. We also destroyed 3 US armored vehicles.”
Jana Cabdalle village is located some 60 km (around 40 miles) from the port city of Kismayu, which is the commercial capital of Jubbaland. The southern Somali region is still partly controlled by al-Shabab.
The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants have been waging an insurgency for more than a decade in Somalia.
Despite being ousted from large parts of the south and central Somalia, al-Shabab continues deadly attacks across the country, which has been ravaged by decades of war and poverty.
The militant group aims to oust the government in Mogadishu and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops. It has been carrying out militancy since 2006.
Al-Shabaab militants have fought successive Somali governments as well as neighboring governments in Uganda and Kenya, the latter of which sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the Takfiri group as part of the African Union forces.
Somalia has faced instability and violence since 1991, when the military government was overthrown.
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