US regular troops are returning to Somalia for the first time since 1993 when 18 special forces died fighting militias in Mogadishu, a battle dramatised in the film Black Hawk Down

A US military spokeswoman on Saturday said several dozen soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division would train and equip Somalia’s army to better fight al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda linked extremist group.

She offered no further details.

“For operational security issues, we will not discuss specifics of military efforts nor speculate on potential future activities or operations,” she said.