4 UAE soldiers, Bahraini officer killed in Somalia

Four Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini officer were killed following an attack in Somalia, where they were training the Somali national army, the United Arab Emirates announced. The soldiers were “exposed to a terrorist act” while “performing their work duties in training and qualifying the Somali Armed Forces”, the UAE’s defense ministry said in a statement on Saturday, adding that three Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini officer were killed. A

fourth Emirati soldier, who was among two injured in the attack, “passed away upon arrival” in the UAE on Sunday, the official WAM news agency said, raising the overall death toll.

Kuwait on Sunday strongly condemned the attack, describing the incident as an act of “terrorism”. Kuwait stands in solidarity with Abu Dhabi and Manama in the wake of this “horrific attack”, according to a foreign ministry statement, emphasizing it is imperative to ramp up global cooperation to fight the “scourge” of terrorism, and extending its “deepest” condolences to the families of the soldiers who died.

HH the Amir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent cables of condolences Sunday to UAE President

Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Bahrain King Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa, expressing condolences over the “terrorist” attack. HH the Amir prayed to Allah Almighty to bless the victims’ souls, wishing the wounded speedy recovery. HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah sent similar cables of condolences to the Gulf leaders.

The corpses arrived in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on board a military aircraft, according to WAM, which carried footage of three coffins draped in Emirati flags being carried on a red carpet across the tarmac during a military ceremony. The UAE “continues to coordinate and cooperate with the Somali government in investigating the sinful terrorist act”, the defense ministry statement said.

A Somali military source told AFP that the gunman was a member of the Somali army who opened fire inside a training camp in the capital Mogadishu, killing and injuring an unknown number of people including soldiers 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,” said a senior Somali army official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

The attack was claimed by AlShabaab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda that has waged a violent insurgency against Somalia’s central government and its foreign backers for over 15 years.