NAIROBI (SD) – Al-Qaeda linked terror group Al-Shabaab has for the first time released a video displaying the names and faces of five militants who attacked a US naval base in Kenyan coastal region.

Simba camp which will mark the first anniversary of the attack is located in Manda Bay of Lamu region.

Early in the morning, on January 5th last year, heavily armed al-Shabaab fighters stormed heavily fortified US base, prompting fierce gunfire with Kenya and US troops in the base.

The attack which lasted for more than an hour left dead three Americans and number of Kenyan soldiers. Six aircrafts were also destroyed.

Al-Shabaab on Monday released over 39 minutes long purported video of the fighters who took part in the attack.

The men were identified as Moulana Faruq Moulana, (Ahmed Al-Muhajir), who leading men was from Yemen, Abubakar Al-Muhajir, a Tanzanian and Ali Muhammad Ali, (Qudama Al-Muhajir) from Burji tribe in Ethiopia Ethiopia.

Others are Abdulwali Muhammad Ibrahim “Moallim Omar” and Adam Iman Yusuf (Abdulkareem) both from Somalia.

According to Kenya police report released hours after the attack last year, five militants were neutralised in the attack but it is not clear whether the five are the aforementioned individuals in the al-Shabaab’s video.

Last February, the U.S. military claimed to have killed a senior al-Shabab leader behind the deadly Jan. 5 attack on the Manda Bay base in precision airstrikes, along with his wife in Hilib town, an al-Shabaab stronghold town.

A claimed dismissed by Somalia’s largest telecommunications company, Hormuud which stated the individual who was killed in the attack was one of its employees saying Mohamud Hajji Salad (the subjected targeted) “had nothing to do with any group or organization.”

Early last month, the terror group also released a video displaying the names and faces of five assailants who attacked a hotel in Nairobi in 2018.

The five attackers of DusitD2 hotel were named as Osman Ahmed Hassan, Ali Salim, Abdigani Arap Yusuf, Mohamed Adam Nur and Mahir Khalid. The group said

In the video, the attackers said that their assault is a response to the decision by American President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the ‘Jewish state’.

Al-Shabaab has been carrying out attacks in Kenya since 2011 when the East Africa nation sent its troops to Somalia to al-Shabaab fighters.

The group also attacked Kenya military inside Somalia, killing hundreds of soldiers in two deadly raids on Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) bases in El-Adde and Kulbiyow towns in Southern Somalia.