Reports from US Military officials confirm the deaths of at least two American contractors and a US service member following a pre-dawn attack by Al Shabab terrorists on the US Africa Command military base in Kenya on Sunday.
The US Military also stated that two “Department of Defense members” were wounded and six contractor-operated civilian aircraft were damaged during the attack which was successfully repelled by the US Military as the terrorists attempted to breach the base.
U.S. Africa Command confirmed that the assault on the Manda Bay compound, regularly used by U.S. forces for African military training and the protection of U.S. interests in the area, resulted in the deaths of 5 Al-Shabab terrorists, and included “indirect and small arms fire.”
“After an initial breach of the perimeter, Kenya Defense Forces and U.S. Africa Command repelled the al-Shabab attack,” mentioned a statement from the Pentagon.
The terror group Al-Shabab, associated with ISIS and based in Somalia, has claimed responsibility for the attack. This incident occurred shortly after the US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, but the Pentagon has dismissed any connection between Soleimani’s death and the Al-Shabab attack, despite it being the first time the group targeted a US base in Kenya.
This latest attack comes just over a week after an al-Shabab truck bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia, which claimed the lives of at least 79 people, and U.S. airstrikes that resulted in the deaths of seven al-Shabab fighters as a response.