Three soldiers of the United Arab Emirates and a Bahraini officer were killed in an attack in Somalia while on a mission to train Somali armed forces, UAE's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday,

The soldiers were "exposed to a terrorist act" while "performing their work duties in training and qualifying the Somali Armed Forces," the ministry wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Two other people were injured in the attack, the ministry added, without giving any further information.

The attack took place at a military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to reports.

News agencies cited military sources as saying that a newly trained soldier of the Somali army opened fire inside a military training camp.

Al-Shabab claims responsibility

The attack was claimed by al-Shabab which is linked to al-Qaeda and has waged a deadly insurgency against Somalia's central government and its foreign supporters since 2006 in a bid to establish its own rule.

The UAE "continues to coordinate and cooperate with the Somali government in investigating the sinful terrorist act," the defense ministry statement said.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud "sent his condolences to the people and Government of the United Arab Emirates" in a statement to Somali state media SONNA.

"I condemn to the worst terms the incident that took the lives of the UAE officers who sacrificed their time and lives to liberate and rebuild our country," Mohamud said.

The president added that he was ordering a probe into the attack.

dvv/sms (AFP, Reuters)