President Trump on Friday expressed his condolences to the family of a U.S. soldier killed in Somalia earlier in the day, calling him and other wounded soldiers “HEROES.”
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of our serviceman who was killed and his fellow servicemen who were wounded in Somolia [sic]. They are truly all HEROES,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
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Trump’s tweet 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 American troops in the region had proper support.
Africom’s statement did not specify how many enemies or which organization carried out the attack, but reports say the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab is suspected.