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Shabab Militia Says It Attacked Kenyan Base Used by U.S. 3 Americans Die in Shabab Attack on Kenyan Base
(about 8 hours later)
NAIROBI, Kenya — The Shabab, the Somali terrorist group, on Sunday attacked a military base in Kenya that is used by both American and Kenyan forces, the militants said. WASHINGTON — A United States service member and two American military contractors died on Sunday in an attack on a Kenyan military base that the Pentagon said was carried out by the Islamic extremist group the Shabab.
The group said in a statement that it had carried out a dawn raid on Camp Simba, across the Somali border in southeastern Kenya. The attack at the military airstrip at Manda Bay, Kenya, early Sunday involved small-arms and other hostile fire, according to a statement by the military’s Africa Command. Fighters from the Shabab, an East African terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, fought their way onto the base before Kenyan and American troops drove them back.
“There was an attack, but they have been repulsed,” Irungu Macharia, the commissioner for Lamu, where the base is situated, told Agence France-Presse. The official did not say whether there had been any casualties. In the past several years, Manda Bay was used by Army Green Berets as an outstation where they both trained Kenyan Rangers — who had their own training center there — and supervised them as they crossed over the border into neighboring Somalia to fight the Shabab.
In a statement, the Kenya Defense Forces said that “four terrorists” had been killed. The military said that the insurgents had unsuccessfully tried to breach an air strip. But recently, the Green Berets were replaced with units from both the Navy SEALs and Marine Special Operations teams. According to military officials, the base has been problematic at best, with cross-border operations rarely going ahead as planned, prompting American officials to consider ending their use of parts of the base altogether.
The United States military’s Africa Command acknowledged the attack in a message on Twitter but did not immediately provide details. The deaths of the three Americans, whose identities were not made public pending notification of their families, were the first United States military-related deaths in Africa since an Army Special Forces soldier, Staff Sgt. Alex Conrad, died from wounds he received during a firefight with Shabab fighters in June 2018, at a small outpost near the town of Jamaame, Somalia, about 200 miles southwest of Mogadishu, the capital.
The Shabab, which are linked to Al Qaeda, hves been fighting to overthrow the weak Somali government. The attack in Kenya comes about a week after an explosives-laden truck blew up at a busy intersection in Mogadishu, killing at least 79 people, the latest sign of resurgent militant activity in a country plagued by an enduring strain of violent extremism. Authorities believe that attack was also carried out by Shabab fighters.
The group was suspected in an attack late last month that killed 79 people in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. American military officials said they assessed that the attack in Kenya was not related to soaring tensions between the United States and Iran after an American drone strike last week that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, one of Iran’s top generals.
The Shabab have proved resilient even as they have lost territory and faced increasing airstrikes by the United States. Over the past few years, the Shabab have killed hundreds of people in attacks at home and in Kenya, and assaulted an American military base outside Mogadishu. In Kenya, about 200 American soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, as well as about 100 Pentagon civilian employees and contractors, are helping train and assist Kenyan forces, who are battling local cells of the Shabab. American officials said that local Shabab fighters most likely carried out the attack on Sunday.
A car bomber and a group of gunmen struck the air base in that attack, in late September. Africa Command reported that no one was killed or injured in the strike. The Africa Command’s statement said that six contractor-operated civilian aircraft were damaged, but The Associated Press, citing an internal Kenyan police report, said the damage was much more extensive, including two American helicopters and multiple American vehicles at the airstrip. An American official said five Shabab fighters were killed in the early-morning firefight.
“We will pursue those responsible for this attack and al-Shabab, who seeks to harm Americans and U.S. interests,” Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the head of the Africa Command, said in the statement. “We remain committed to preventing al-Shabab from maintaining a safe haven to plan deadly attacks against the U.S. homeland, East African and international partners.”
The Pentagon is weighing whether to sharply reduce or pull out several hundred American troops stationed in West Africa as the first phase of a global reshuffling of United States forces. But Defense Department officials said it was less likely that troops would be withdrawn from Somalia because — as the recent attacks by Shabab fighters gruesomely underscore — security in the country remains fraught.
General Townsend is scheduled to testify to Congress later this month during annual hearings for each of the Pentagon’s worldwide commands. He is expected to face tough questioning from lawmakers about the Pentagon’s planning for the continent.
The Pentagon carried out 63 drone strikes in Somalia last year — almost all against Shabab militants, with a few against a branch of the Islamic State. That compares with 47 strikes against the Shabab in 2018.