Camp Simba attack

Camp Simba attack
Part of the War in Somalia
Date5 January 2020
Location
Lamu County, Kenya
Result Al-Shabaab victory[1][2]
Belligerents
 United States
 Kenya		 Al-Shabaab
Strength
United States ~100[3]
Kenya Unknown		 ~30-40 militants[4]
Casualties and losses
United States 1 soldier, 2 contractors killed[2][3]
5 aircraft destroyed
1 aircraft damaged
2 Oshkosh M-ATV
several fuel tanker destroyed [2][5]
Kenya None		 5 killed
5 arrested
Unknown wounded[6]

The Camp Simba attack was a pre-dawn attack at Magagoni Airfield near Camp Simba on 5 January 2020. The camp is used by Kenyan and U.S. troops and is located near Manda Bay on the mainland of Lamu County, Kenya. The perpetrators were al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based Islamic extremist insurgent group. Approximately 30-40 [4] al-Shabaab militants assaulted Camp Simba, which was home to around 100 US personnel along with an undisclosed number of Kenyan troops. It was the first al-Shabaab targeting of US military personnel in Kenya.[7]

The timing of the attack coincided with recent Iranian threats of retaliation to target US troops in response to the US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in the 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike. However, al-Shabaab claimed no link between their decision to attack and to those events.[8]

  1. ^ Guled, Abdi; Odula, Tom; Anna, Cara (6 January 2020). "Extremists attack Kenya military base, 3 Americans killed". Associated Press. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Roggio, Bill (26 February 2020). "AFRICOM kills Shabaab commander behind Manda Bay Airfield attack". Long War Journal. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference BBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Funk, Paul (29 November 2021). "Subject: Executive Summary of Report of Independent Review of the USAFRICOM 15-6 Investigation re:Attack on CSL Manda Bay" (PDF).
  5. ^ "1 U.S. Serviceperson, 2 Contractors Dead, 6 Planes Struck, Including Rare Spy Plane, In Kenya Attack (Updated)". The Drive. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rempfer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Babb, Carla (9 January 2020). "Exclusive: AFRICOM Sends Top Brass to Kenya to Investigate al-Shabab Attack". Voice of America. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  8. ^ Trevithick, Joseph (5 January 2020). "1 U.S. Serviceperson, 2 Contractors Dead, 6 Planes Struck, Including Rare Spy Plane, In Kenya Attack (Updated)". The Drive. Retrieved 23 January 2020.