The Defense Department says a 26-year-old soldier from Arizona has died from wounds suffered in Somalia.
In a statement issued in Washington, the Defense Department identified the soldier as Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Conrad of Chandler, Arizona. The statement says he died Friday of injuries sustained from enemy indirect fire.
Conrad was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The military said earlier that four other U.S. service members were wounded in an extremist attack in Somalia.
It was the first public announcement of a U.S. military combat death in Africa since four U.S. service members were killed in a militant ambush in the West African nation of Niger in October.
Conrad was participating in a multi-day mission that included some 800 Somali and Kenyan troops. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which is based in Somalia and controls parts of the country's rural south and central regions, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the U.S. soldier.
A military editor covering Fort Bragg tweeted a photo of Conrad.