This archive report was first published on 30 September 2019.
On September 30, 2019, a car bomber and a group of gunmen attacked the Bale Dogle airfield in Somalia, which is used by American forces in the fight against the militant group Shabab.
The Shabab, an extremist Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that its fighters had 'stormed the military complex, engaging the crusaders in an intense firefight.'
Another car bombing occurred later in the morning in Mogadishu, the capital, missing its apparent target, a group of Italian peacekeeping troops, but injuring some Somali civilians, according to local news reports.
Commander Desiree Frame, a spokeswoman for the United States Africa Command, declined to say whether there had been any casualties in the attack on the airfield.
The Shabab has lost much of the territory it once controlled, but it continues to pose a persistent threat, carrying out a string of attacks in Somalia and elsewhere in East Africa.
For three decades, Somalia has been in a state of intermittent civil war, with the country having no central government for several years and fragile governments that could not exercise authority over parts of the country.
