Car bombing leaves several Somali troops dead, one US adviser injured
Al Shabab claims responsibility for attack at military base in Janay Abdalla, a village about 60 km outside the southern port city of Kismayo.
File photo of armed Al Shabab fighters just outside Mogadishu, Somalia, preparing to travel into the city in pickup trucks after vowing there would be new waves of attacks against Ethiopian troops. December 8, 2008.
A suicide bomber has killed five Somali soldiers and seriously wounded an American military adviser in Somalia in an attack claimed by the Al Shabab group, according to security officials.
The bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the entrance of a military base in Janay Abdalla, a village about 60 km outside the southern port city of Kismayo.
Mohamed Abdulle, a local security official, said on Monday that the vehicle was fired upon but unable to be stopped.
Al Shabab claimed responsibility, saying 16 Somali troops and four Americans were killed. The group frequently exaggerate the number of casualties sustained in their attacks.
Three decades of conflict
Somalia has suffered near-continuous conflict for almost 30 years, while the internationally backed government in Mogadishu has been fighting Al Shabab since 2008.
In August, 10 civilians and a police officer were killed in a gun and bomb attack by Al Shabab fighters on an upscale beachfront hotel in the capital.
That same month, four Al Shabab fighters held in Mogadishu's central prison were killed in an intense shootout with security forces after they somehow managed to get their hands on weapons within the facility.
At least seven people were killed in a separate attack in August when a car bomb exploded at an army base in Mogadishu where members of the Somali National Army (SNA) were stationed.
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