Three Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini officer were killed in an attack in Somalia where they were carrying out an army training mission, the UAE Defense Ministry said on Saturday evening, an action claimed by the Islamist Shebab.
The soldiers were “subjected to a terrorist act” while “performing their training duties” of the “Somali Armed Forces” within the “framework of a military cooperation agreement,” said a statement from the ministry published on the social network
Two other soldiers were injured, the same source said, without giving further details.
“The United Arab Emirates continues to coordinate and cooperate with the Government of Somalia in the investigation of this terrorist attack,” the text continued.
A Somali military source told AFP that the gunman was a member of the Somali army who opened fire at a training camp in the capital Mogadishu, killing and wounding an unknown number of people, including Emirati soldiers.
“The shooting was carried out by an army member who was in the camp. He was killed in the shooting,” said a senior Somali army official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.
The attack was claimed by the radical Islamists Shebab, an al-Qaida-linked group that has waged a violent insurgency against the Somali government and its foreign backers for more than 15 years.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud expressed condolences to the government and people of the United Arab Emirates over the deaths of military officers in Mogadishu who came to help rebuild the army.
“We strongly condemn the heinous act that killed these officers. I have requested an urgent investigation into this matter,” he wrote on the social network X.
The United Arab Emirates and Somalia, which are in internal conflict with the radical Islamists Shebab, signed an agreement on military and security cooperation in January 2023.