US Special-forces Member Killed in Clash With Somali Militants

PENTAGON / WASHINGTON — 

Al-Shabab militants in Somalia killed a member of U.S. special forces Friday and wounded three other members of an American team assisting Somali soldiers, U.S. officials said.

The Navy SEAL who died in the operation against al-Shabab was the first American service member killed in combat in the war-torn country since a deadly battle in 1993 — the clash that inspired the movie Black Hawk Down.

White House officials said President Donald Trump sent his deepest condolences to the family of the victim, along with his appreciation for the efforts of all men and women in the U.S. military.

Small-arms fire killed the Navy SEAL in a small village 65 kilometers west of Mogadishu. A U.S. military official told VOA at least two other Navy SEALs and an interpreter were wounded in the attack in the village of Barire, west of Afgoye.

U.S. Africa Command, responsible for all American military operations on the continent, said the U.S. forces came under attack during an advise-and-assist mission alongside members of the Somali National Army.

"This was a Somali mission," Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday. American forces were "operating in support of" the Somali units, in an attack targeting a compound associated with attacks on nearby facilities used by both U.S. and Somali forces, he added.

A senior official in Somalia's Lower Shabelle region said soldiers raided a building that houses Radio Andalus, al-Shabab's official radio station. The attack killed eight al-Shabab fighters, the official said, adding that radio-station equipment reportedly was seized.

"We helped bring [the Somali soldiers] in with our aircraft, and we were there maintaining a distance back as they conducted the operation," Davis said at the Pentagon. "That's when our forces came under fire."

VOA