The attack comes after a USA airstrike on a training camp killed more than 150 al-Shabab members on Saturday.
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The al-Qaeda offshoot said Wednesday that foreign forces dropped in by helicopter had attempted to raid an al-Shabab-held town in southern Somalia overnight, according to The Associated Press.
Aways said the brunt of the attack – involving three warplanes and “infantry ” – lasted about 30 minutes, according to the state-run Somali National News Agency.
Peter Cook, a Pentagon spokesman, said that attack Saturday was carried out to safeguard “our African Union Mission” in Somalia and that “the fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat” to the mission.
Shebab has stepped up their attacks since the start of the year. There was no immediate word on whether USA commandoes carried out the Tuesday night ground attack.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Hoping to capture a high-profile target, Somali forces hopped off helicopters a couple of miles (kilometers) from an al-Shabab-controlled town, slipped through the dark and got into a fierce firefight that reportedly killed more than 10 Islamic extremists, USA and Somali officials said.
Then-President Bill Clinton pulled USA forces out of Somalia, with the incident souring some people’s feelings about US military’s intervention in certain foreign entanglements.
“And part of that mission is to conduct enabling missions on occasion”, Davis said.
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Meanwhile, three police officers and one civilian were killed Wednesday in a suicide auto bombing outside a cafe near the police academy in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, said police Gen. Ali Hersi Barre.
