US Soldier killed, four wounded in Somalia.

Al-Shabab fighters. USA Today/AP.

An US soldier was killed and four more were wounded in a firefight with al-Shabab in Somalia. USA Today. The injured soldiers have been treated and released and one of the local partner force was wounded as well. The skirmish was an attack by the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab militia 200 miles southwest of the capital of Mogadishu. Al-Shabab is considered one of the most dangerous terror groups in Africa and was responsible for an attack last year that killed more than 500 people. 

My Comment:

It seems as though our involvement in countertenor operations in Africa are completely ignored until something like this happens. I am guessing a lot of people didn't even know we have troops in Somalia until this happened. I had heard about it a long time ago and am familiar with al-Shabab, but for the general populace? I don't think they know. 

In truth though, our involvement in Somalia has increased dramatically. We have been targeting al-Shabab for quite some time. They are an extremely dangerous terror group and if they are not dealt with they could take over the country and extend their terror operations outside of Africa. They already have committed some serious terror attacks in Kenya. 

It seems as though al-Shabab is still very active. This attack seemed like a rather conventional one with mortars and rifle fire attacking the US troops and local allies. The troops were likely in an advisory and air support role but managed to get attacked themselves. 

This is a propaganda coup for al-Shabab as terror groups rarely managed to kill or injure US troops. They will be using this as a recruiting tool unfortunately. They will be able to say to potential fighters they have actually managed to bring the fight to the US troops in Somalia. 

I have heard that President Trump has changed the rules of engagement in Africa to make incidents like this more rare. He's not going to be happy that this incident happened as he does not want to risk troops, especially our highly trained special forces, in an African battlefield. My guess is that there will be a response to this from our government with a possible reduction in support.