At least 4 Emirati troopers and a Bahraini officer had been killed in a Somalia assault claimed by the al-Shabab terrorist group.
The navy personnel had been coaching the Somali nationwide military, the United Arab Emirates’ Defense ministry stated Saturday.
The troopers had been “exposed to a terrorist act” whereas “performing their work duties in training and qualifying the Somali Armed Forces,” the ministry stated in a press release on social media platform X.
Two others had been wounded within the incident, the ministry stated, with out giving additional particulars.
The UAE “continues to coordinate and cooperate with the Somali government in investigating the sinful terrorist act,” the assertion added.
A Somali navy supply advised Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the gunman was a member of the Somali military who opened fireplace inside a coaching camp within the capital Mogadishu, killing and injuring an unknown variety of folks together with troopers from the UAE.
“The shooting was carried out by a member of the army who stayed in the camp. He was killed in the shooting,” stated a senior Somali military official who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate safety issues.
The assault was claimed by al-Shabab, a terrorist group aligned with al-Qaida that has waged a violent insurgency towards Somalia’s central authorities and its international backers for over 15 years.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud despatched his condolences “to the government and the people of the United Arab Emirates over the death of the military officers in Mogadishu who came to assist in rebuilding the Somali army.”
“We condemn in our strongest terms this heinous act in which these officers were killed. I have instructed an urgent investigation on the matter,” he stated in a put up on X.
The United Arab Emirates and Somalia signed a navy and safety cooperation settlement in January 2023.
Source: www.dailysabah.com