Somalia soldiers killed; US officer wounded in al-Shabab attack





Three Somali special forces soldiers were killed and an American officer was wounded in a car bombing and mortar attack outside a military base in Somalia's south on Monday.

The al-Qaeda-linked armed group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack and put the number of dead at 20.

A Somali soldier was also wounded in the attack in Janay Abdalla village, some 60km (37 miles) from the port city of Kismayu, which is also Jubbaland state's administrative capital.

"Two soldiers of Danab [special] forces died and two others were wounded. A US officer was seriously wounded," Mohamed Ahmed Sabriye, Jubbaland's director of communications, told the Reuters news agency. He later said one of the wounded Somali soldiers died.

Ismail Mukhtar Oronjo, a Somali government spokesman, told Anadolu news agency it was a suicide car bomb that exploded outside the special forces base.

"A car bomb blast targeted a military base in Janay Abdalla earlier on Monday," Oronjo said.

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