Militant group attacks U.S. special forces base, Italian army convoy in Somalia

The remnants of a car that blew up in Mogadishu.

(Image credit: Abdirazak Hussein Farah/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 1 October 2019

The al-Shabab militant group has claimed responsibility for an attack on Monday against a U.S. special forces base in Somalia.

The base is in Baledogle, about 60 miles west of the capital, Mogadishu. The U.S. used the base to train Somali soldiers and, Al Jazeera reports, also to carry out drone attacks against al-Shabab. A witness told AFP that two car bombs went off and there "was also a heavy exchange of gunfire after the blasts."

Al-Shabab said its fighters managed to get into the base, but the U.S. Mission to Somalia said security forces "stopped this ultimately failed attack due to their alertness and swift response, not allowing the attackers to breach the outer defensive perimeters of the base. We are thankful that there were no Somali National Army casualties between the multiple attacks." U.S. Africa Command said there was a counterattack, and 10 al-Shabab fighters were killed.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox