Shabaab Targets Base Where U.S. Soldier Died With Suicide Bombing

One day after a deadly attack on a joint U.S.-Kenyan-Somali base in southern Somalia, Shabaab again targeted the base today with a suicide car bomb. This time, Somali authorities reported that forces within the base were able to kill the driver, which caused the detonation of the vehicle before it was able to get close to the base perimeter and inflict serious damage.

Shabaab, via its Shahada News Telegram channel, claimed the suicide bombing killed “more than 50 members of the government’s militias” in the attack. However, Shabaab is known to inflate numbers when attacks do not go as planned for the jihadist group.

The suicide car bombing comes just a day after a deadly assault on the same base in which one US Special Forces soldier was killed. Four other US personnel, and one Somali special forces member, were also wounded.

Caleb Weiss is an intern at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a contributor to The Long War Journal.

This article appeared originally at FDD's Long War Journal.