The U.S. military launched an air strike in Somalia on Saturday, killing 52 Islamists who had attacked a Somali military base earlier in the day, it said.

The air strike targeted al Shabaab fighters who had rammed into the military base near Jilib, 370 km (230 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu using a suicide car bomb, military officials in the state of Jubbaland told Reuters.

Other pictures appeared to show a car rigged with explosives that had not detonated at the Bar Sanguni forward operating base, which had come under al Shabaab attack.

On Friday they ambushed an Ethiopian military convoy 80 km (50 miles) north of Baidoa in central Somalia. Al Shabaab said it killed “more than 57 Ethiopian invaders.”

On Tuesday, al Shabaab militants attacked a hotel compound in neighboring Kenya, killing at least 21 people.

Al Shabaab retains a strong presence in parts of southern and central Somalia, and the U.S. military has stepped up air strikes over the last year.

The group could not immediately be reached for comment.