Homeland Security News

A suicide car bomb explosion at a military base in Somalia injured seven soldiers late Saturday, a military official said, and Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al Shabaab fights to topple Somalia’s western-backed central government and impose its a rule based on its own strict interpretation of Islam’s Sharia law.

Major Hussein Ali, a Somali military officer told Reuters the attack took place at a military base just outside the town of Kismayu in Southern Somalia.

“We fired (at) the suicide car bomb before it entered the base. It exploded outside the base. Only seven Somali soldiers were injured,” Ali said.

Read more:  Reuters

Afghan security forces on Sunday seized 156 sacks of ammonium nitrate, widely used in making explosives, from the back of a vegetable truck crossing from Pakistan, an official said, in one of the biggest such finds.

    Intelligence officers found nearly eight tonnes of the chemical, “brought for insurgent activities”, hidden under sacks of vegetables on the truck at the Torkham border crossing, at the end of the Khyber Pass, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province told Reuters.

    Ammonium nitrate is widely used as a fertiliser, but for security reasons, imports into Afghanistan are banned.

    Afghanistan faces insurgencies by the Taliban, Islamic State and the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. Pakistan and Afghanistan frequently accuse each other of harbouring terrorists planning cross-border raids.

    A massive truck bomb struck the Afghan capital, Kabul, in May last year, killing more than 150 people.

    The Taliban on Saturday announced a surprise three-day ceasefire over the Muslim Eid holiday this month, their first offer of its kind, days after the government declared an unconditional ceasefire of its own.

Read more:  Reuters

A US special forces soldier has been killed in an attack by suspected al-Shabab militants in southern Somalia, officials say.

Four other US soldiers and a Somali soldier were wounded in what appears to have been an ambush north of the port of Kismayo, US defence officials added.

The American forces were operating alongside Somali troops.

It was the first known US combat death in Africa since an ambush in Niger in October, the New York Times reports.

US President Donald Trump sent his condolences in a tweet.

Militants launched the attack using small arms and mortar fire against a small outpost, defence officials quoted by the Times said.

The US military says its forces operate on an "advise and assist" mission with the Somali National Army.

Traditionally, US presidents have been wary of intervening in Somalia since 18 special forces soldiers died fighting militias in Mogadishu in 1993, a battle dramatised in the film Black Hawk Down.

However, President Donald Trump has expanded military operations against al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda affiliate there.

Read more:  BBC News