Navy SEAL Killed in Somalia Raid

2 others hurt in battle with al-Shabab fighters
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2017 10:56 AM CDT
Navy SEAL Killed in Somalia Raid
Al-Shabab fighters are seen in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 2009.   (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor, File)

A Navy SEAL was killed and two other US service members were wounded in an attack on al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab in Somalia on Thursday, say US officials. US Africa Command says the casualties—including what is believed to be the first combat death of a US soldier in the country since 1993—occurred as forces were "conducting an advise and assist mission alongside members of the Somali National Army" some 40 miles west of Mogadishu, per Fox News.

A Somali intelligence official tells the AP that the mission was to raid a terrorist hideout, but forces were met with heavy resistance from al-Shabab fighters after a helicopter dropped them nearby. An official tells CNN that the soldiers came under small-arms fire. The incident comes a month after the US military announced that 40 additional soldiers would join US troops in Somalia to train and assist the Somali National Army in its fight against al-Shabab. (More Navy SEALs stories.)

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