Shabaab Claims American Casualties in Bomb Blasts on Joint U.S.-Somali Convoy in Lower Juba
The Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement, the Somalia-based branch of al-Qaeda (AQ), claimed to have inflicted casualties among American forces in six bomb blasts on a joint U.S.-Somali convoy in Lower Juba region.
The group's Shahada News Agency reported the incident on July 6, 2023, stating that one explosion took place between Janay Abdale and Harboole, and the five others were carried out near Janay Abdale. It did not give a casualty estimate but alleged a "large number" of deaths and injuries among the U.S.-trained Somali Special Forces known as Danab, as well as Americans.
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) denied reports of U.S. casualties in the bombings.
UPDATE: Shahada later provided the preliminary toll of the operations, claiming that two vehicles of U.S. forces were destroyed and maintaining that the Americans did indeed suffer casualties and AFRICOM is intentionally covering them up. It added that 12 Somali troops were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded.
Following is a translation of the reports:
- A U.S. armored military vehicle was destroyed in a bombing carried out by Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement between the Janay Abdi [Abdale] and Harboole areas, on the outskirts of Kismayo city, in Juba province, southern Somalia. The targeted armored vehicle was part of a joint convoy of American forces and U.S.-trained Somali Special Forces, and the operation resulted in deaths and injuries in the American ranks. Al-Shabaab fighters targeted the same convoy another time, in five bombings, near the Janay Abdi [Abdale] area, destroying a military vehicle and inflicting a large number of deaths and injuries among the Somali Special Forces, who were carried away in 3 vehicles afterward. The convoy was compelled to escape from death and flee to Kismayo, having suffered heavy losses.
- The initial outcome of the bombings with which Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement fighters targeted yesterday a joint convoy of American forces and U.S.-trained Somali Special Forces near the Janay Abdi [Abdale] area, on the outskirts of Kismayo, in Juba province, southern Somalia, includes the destruction of two armored vehicles belonging to the Americans and the death and injury of multiple passengers. The U.S. military command in Africa - AFRICOM - admitted that its forces were subject to blasts in the Kismayo outskirts, but as usual, it concealed the extent of the losses and the details of the attack.
The preliminary losses incurred by the Somali Special Forces includes the death of 12 soldiers, the injury of more than that number, and the destruction of two of their military vehicles.
