A colonel, Bulle Mohamed Ibrahim, called claims made by US as ‘baseless and absurd one’, saying Somali army killed 18 militants in operation near Kismayo, some 500km south of Mogadishu.

"There was no US airstrike in Somalia, which killed 18 Al-Shabaab militants, but, it was an operation carried out by Somali army forces”, he said.

In a statement, U.S. Africa Command said the strike killed 18 Al-Shabaab militants in Janaa Abdalla area, some 50km northwest of Kismayo town after U.S. and Somali troops came under attack by Al Shabaab.

The US military carried out an airstrike, in a bid to participate in a "Somali partner forces-led operation against Al-Shabab,” said a memo obtained by Waagacusub Media 

The United States has carried out more than 20 airstrikes against Al-Shabab in Somalia in 2018.

The special operations forces have also been rotating through the country for several years to bolster local and regional forces.

The U.S. military partners with the African Union Mission to Somalia, or AMISOM, during combined counter-terrorism operations against al Shabab training camps and terrorist leadership.

The African Union has a combined contribution of roughly 22,000 personnel in Somalia.

In early June, one U.S. soldier was killed and four more were wounded during an attack by Al-Shabab militants that consisted of small-arms fire and mortars near Kismayo, a town some 500km south of Somali capital Mogadishu.