A car bomb attack on Monday killed three Somali special forces soldiers, a government official has said.
An American officer was also wounded in the bombing which occurred outside the force’s base in Jana Cabdalle village, near the port city of Kismayu.
Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab has claimed the attack and put the number of dead at 20.
Mohammed Ahmed Sabriye, director of communications, Jubbaland state palace, said two soldiers died in the attack while a third member of the special forces died in the hospital.
U.S. Africa Command spokesman Air Force Colonel Christopher Karns, in a statement, said one U.S. soldier suffered non-life threatening injuries and is now in stable condition.
He added that at least one Al Shabaab fighter was killed during the attack, which involved mortar fire.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, in a statement claiming the attack disclosed that they attacked U.S. and Somali forces called Danab in Jana Cabdalle village with a suicide car bomb killing four U.S. officers, and 16 Somali forces.
“We also wounded 12 Somali soldiers and destroyed three U.S. armoured vehicles,” he added.
The government and Al Shabaab often give different numbers of casualties.
Al Shabaab has been fighting to topple Somalia’s central government since 2008.
The group said it wished to establish a form of Sharia Law in the country.
In 2017, more than 300 people were killed by twin bomb explosions in Mogadishu.
The blasts struck at two busy junctions in the heart of the capital city. One truck bomb detonated near a fuel truck, creating an enormous fireball.
The bomb attacks were the deadliest since terrorist militant group Al- Shabaab began an insurgency in 2007.
Aden Nur, a doctor at the city’s Madina hospital, said that 160 of the bodies could not be recognized.
Some of the wounded have been airlifted to Turkey for treatment, officials said.