President Trump on Friday issued a statement expressing his condolences to the family of a U. S. soldier killed in Somalia earlier in the day,…
President Trump on Friday issued a statement expressing his condolences to the family of a U. S. soldier killed in Somalia earlier in the day, calling him and his wounded comrades “HEROES.”
In a tweet, the president said his “thoughts and prayers” were with the families of the service member and his comrades, but misspelled the name of “Somalia,” the African nation in which the troops were fighting.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of our serviceman who was killed and his fellow servicemen who were wounded in Somolia. They are truly all HEROES,” he wrote.
Trump’s statement came just a few hours after the military officially reported the special operations agent’s death, stating that one other service member had been wounded in an enemy attack.
“During an operation June 8,2018, in Jubaland, Somalia, one U. S. Special Operations member was killed and four U. S. service members and one partner force was wounded as the result of an enemy attack,” U. S. Africa Command (Africom) said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the service members.”
The death is the first U. S. combat death in Africa since an ambush last year by ISIS-aligned fighters in Niger left four U. S. soldiers dead and prompted questions over whether U. S. troops in the region had proper support.
Africom’s statement does not specify how many enemies or which organization carried out the attack, but reports say the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab is suspected.
