Attack hits base serving U.S. troops in Kenya
A military base used by U.S. troops in Kenya was hit by an attack early Sunday. Kenya’s military said a pre-dawn attempt to breach security was repulsed, with at least four attackers killed. The U.S. Africa Command confirmed the attack at Manda Bay Airfield on the country’s east coast and said it was monitoring the…
A military base used by U.S. troops in Kenya was hit by an attack early Sunday.
Kenya’s military said a pre-dawn attempt to breach security was repulsed, with at least four attackers killed.
The U.S. Africa Command confirmed the attack at Manda Bay Airfield on the country’s east coast and said it was monitoring the situation.
“The airstrip is safe,” the Kenya Defense Forces said in a statement.
The al-Shabab extremist group claimed the attack, asserting that it had inflicted casualties and destroyed U.S. military equipment, including aircraft, in the raid on the military base near Kenya’s border with Somalia.
NBC News has not verified the claims.
U.S. Africa Command Spokesman Col. Christopher Karns called them “grossly exaggerated.” There was no report of U.S. or Kenyan deaths.
The Al Qaeda-linked group is based in neighboring Somalia and has launched a number of attacks in Kenya. It has been the target of a growing number of U.S. airstrikes during President Donald Trump’s administration.
The attack comes just over a week after an al-Shabab truck bomb in Somalia’s capital killed at least 79 people and U.S. airstrikes killed several al-Shabab fighters in response.
Another U.S. airstrike Friday killed three militants, U.S. Africa Command said.
Camp Simba in Lamu county, established more than a decade ago, has under 100 U.S. personnel, according to Pentagon figures. A U.S. flag-raising there in August signaled its change “from tactical to enduring operations,” the Air Force said at the time.
Source: NBC news
